The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games
by NoOneToWorryAbout
Summary: The Riptocs... an ancient race lost long ago... But now, one survivor has returned and he wants... revenge. Join Spyro, Cynder, and their new friends as they attempt to stop the newest threat to the realms... Will be rated M just in case
1. Prologue

**I'm back!!! And I brought my new story with me!**

**I wont be long but I have to say this: this is how I imagined things if the Riptocs would be taken into the TLoS world. So there will be changes from the original stuff; appearances, histories, etc.**

**If you end up hating me for this, I don't care, I'll still be posting up chapters for this story =P**

**Well, I've said enough, so here you go!**

**I don't own any Spyro characters. Enjoy!**

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The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Prologue

Over nine generations ago, there existed another race of creatures along with the dragons, cheetahs, and moles. They were known as Riptocs. These creatures had lived in peace with the other races that inhabited the realms. Although they were short in stature, they were a force to be reckoned with. They were masters in hand-to-hand combat; a single riptoc could be quite the challenge for an adolescent dragon.

As the years passed by, the relationship between the dragons and riptocs grew stronger and they formed an alliance, combining their great powers together to win many battles over those who sought to disrupt the peace. This alliance not only made their battle prowess incredible, but it also strengthened the separate races.

The riptocs began to teach the dragons how to fight in close quarters combat using their claws, tails, and horns, should their magical abilities falter. With their help, the dragons did not solely focus on their magic and began to grow much stronger physically.

In return for their teachings, the dragons had willingly offered the riptocs their ways in magic. There was one problem with that however. Riptocs did not have the natural ability to use magic or breath elements at will. The greatest minds that both sides had to offer got together to try to solve this problem… and they did. They had created a special item that will channel magic and allow its wielder to control it however he or she saw fit. The item they created: the staff.

At first, many riptocs were skeptical about it; after all, it only looked like a wooden stick with a crystal on top. However, after explaining and demonstrating how it worked, their faith in the weapon grew and many decided to take lessons in controlling the magic. Others however, had decided to stick with their trusty blades and axes, which was perfectly fine for they needed physical strength as well to make an unstoppable army.

Many more years pass and the alliance between the two races continued to grow stronger. The weapons became more advanced; magic had become second nature to the riptocs, same with the dragons and their newfound strength. Everything and everyone seemed to be at peace and got along very well… all except for one.

Amongst the dragons, there was one who despised the riptocs to no end. In battle, this dragon was known to be the wreaker of havoc to enemies, the conqueror of battles, the bane of all evil. He had a strong build, three horns on his head, large spikes that ran down on either side of his body, pale chest and wings, a deadly sharp tail blade, piercing golden-yellow eyes that seemed to glow brightly in the dark, and, what stood out the most, purple scales covering his body. His name… was Malefor.

No one knew why he had such a deep hatred for the riptocs; in fact, no one even knew that he hated them to begin with.

Oh how he wished that he could just kill them off one by one, he would truly like nothing more. But Malefor was no fool. He knew that if he took the life of a riptoc or two, the trail would eventually lead back to him and they would eliminate him. No, he needed to plot, to bide his time.

Finally, after months of plotting, the purple dragon got his chance to put his plan into action. It was right after a major victory over some rampaging golems that threatened to destroy their civilizations. Once again, it was Malefor, using his immense powers, who had saved the day. The riptoc leader, Rift, had invited the purple savior for a great celebration to honor him. Of course, Malefor gladly accepted the invitation and planned to plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of the riptocs.

During the celebration, Rift and Malefor shared a conversation.

"So Malefor, are you enjoying yourself so far?"

Malefor put his glass of fine wine down and smiled at the riptoc leader, "Indeed I am Lord Rift."

Rift chuckled, "Please, no need to be so formal, just Rift will do."

"Very well then, Rift. Listen, there's something I-"

"Hey dad!" a young riptoc said, unknowingly interrupting Malefor. He approached the two friends. He looked to be just entering adulthood. His skin was red in color, covered by a wizard's robe. On his head was a single horn that swayed left then right, ending in a very sharp, straight point.

"Ah Ripto my son," said Rift, "Come here, there's someone I know you'll enjoy meeting."

Ripto sighed, _Not another boring, old…_ he thought. When he reached the table, Ripto looked up and to the left of his father. His eyes widened as he realized who he was looking at. "Y-You're… You're…"

"Malefor," the purple dragon finished for him, chuckling at the same time.

"Yeah!" Ripto said with excitement. "Ancestors! It is such an honor to finally meet you! I've heard so many stories about you and even got the chance to see you in action! I've admired your strength in battle for so long and now… I finally get to meet you!"

Malefor smiled, "And you honor me as well. It is not every day one gets to meet the son of the riptoc leader."

"Th-thank you! Wow! I have so many questions! So much I want to learn from you! I-" Ripto continued until he was interrupted by another voice, this one belonging to a female riptoc.

"Ripto! Come on!" said the voice. The red riptoc looked behind him to see his girlfriend, Tasha, waiting for him.

"Ah yes, that's why I came here," Ripto mumbled to himself. "Father, I just came to tell you that if you can't find me, don't worry. I'm going to spend some alone time with Tasha. Don't wait up!" He then turned around and quickly met up with his girl. They then left the crowded plaza in search of a peaceful night together.

Rift sighed happily as he watched his son depart. "That boy's going to be a great leader someday. You know, he's already in the Advanced Magic class and yet he's so young."

"Indeed," Malefor said, "He has great potential. I'm sure he will be all you expect him to be." Inside of his mind however, he thought differently. _This is exactly why I hate your kind!_ He said to himself. _You are all becoming very powerful very fast. Soon, who will stop you from taking over as the dominant species?! There is no way I will ever serve such tiny, pathetic creatures like you! That is why you must be eliminated now!_

"So Malefor," Rift said, breaking the purple dragon from his thoughts, "you were saying something earlier?"

The facial expression on Malefor became saddened. Though he was faking it, it was very convincing. "Yes… you see… our general, Primus, the first of course, has been plotting against you all secretly…" he said quietly as to not cause a panic. Before Rift could respond, Malefor continued, "I overheard him speaking of it to some other high-ranking dragons in our community. They plan to wait for a few years to fully gain your trust then shatter it and attack you when you least expect it."

Needless to say Rift was shocked at the news. He pressed Malefor on for more information and the purple dragon did so, fabricating this false accusation. They discussed this matter throughout the rest of the night. When Malefor had said all he could for now, Rift promised to not tell any dragon that he had leaked this information. Malefor then flew off back to his home, thankful that Rift would keep it a secret from the dragons. _The seeds have been planted,_ he thought to himself, _now to watch them grow._

Over the course of two years, whispers went around the riptoc nation about this devious plot. Those whispers became rumors, rumors became speeches, and speeches became demands of action.

During this time, Rift had also fallen into the trap that Malefor had set, believing his lies. Because of this, tensions between the two races increased and they began to separate themselves from each other.

The final straw was drawn when General Primus got word of the heinous accusations that the riptocs had made against him. This angered him and, without a second thought, he claimed war against them.

Soon after, all hell broke loose as the dragon and riptoc armies faced of against one another. The battle was at a stalemate for quite some time… until a mighty roar was heard. Every head turned towards the direction of the roar and there, they saw the purple dragon Malefor soar into the sky and look down upon them. The riptocs cheered for him, thinking that he would be on their side as he had promised so many times. However, their cheers turned into screams of terror as he began to attack them instead of the dragons.

Soon after his appearance, the dragons won the battle. They made sure that not one riptoc survived the massacre. After searching for several days, they had determined that they had become extinct. Malefor smiled inwardly, his plan had worked out perfectly. _Plotting the downfall of such a great nation felt…good…_ he thought to himself, _I like it… it's addicting!_

Little did he know that by committing this act, he had not only planted the seeds of doubt, but he had also allowed the seeds of darkness within his own heart to take root and grow…

- - - - - - - -

Elsewhere, miles away from the devastated land of the riptocs, a lone, red riptoc remained alive. He was able to escape the massacre, but at what cost? He had lost everything, his home, his family… the love of his life… all gone. "And it's because of that blasted purple dragon!!" Ripto shouted to the heavens. "I swear! I will get my revenge on him and all other dragons!!!" In order to do that however, Ripto knew he needed more power, but that was not a problem for him. He knew what to do.

Using his magical staff, he created a deep hole in the crust of the earth. He then jumped in, sealing off the hole as if nothing had happened. He continued to dig deeper and deeper, getting closer to the core of the planet. Finally, he could go no longer and stopped where he was. _This ought to do,_ he thought, _the closer I am to the core of this planet, the more magic I will be exposed to and the stronger I will become! _He then cast one final spell, a spell of ice. He froze himself in his hole with a thick layer of ice, putting him in a state of suspended animation.

There, he waited patiently, allowing the magical energy of the planet to seep into him, making him stronger. He waited there with only one thought on his mind…

Revenge on the Purple Dragon…

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**Pretty long for a prologue…**

**Anyways, this is the beginning of my next adventure for Spyro and friends! I am so excited about this story! Hopefully I will get another break soon so I'll have more time to continue… **

**Get ready to see some new faces as well! Some new OCs will be making their appearances here very soon! But until then…**

**This is NoOne, over and out! Till next time!**


	2. A New Day

**Alright! Time to officially get this story started! This chapter will basically be a bunch of introductions to my OCs… six in total! I hope this doesn't overwhelm you… but anyways…**

**Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

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The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 1: A new day

It has been five long, peaceful and prosperous years since the defeat of the Dark Master.

In a small village not too far away from Dante's Freezer, a new morning had just arrived. Even in the early hours, there were many dragons already on the move. Fathers left homes to take care of their duties, mothers cooked breakfast for their children, and many young dragons going about talking to friends and playing.

Less than a mile away from the village there were other dragons hard at work digging deeper and deeper into the crust of the world. Recently, the dragons of the village had found that their land was rich with minerals. Word quickly got out about their discovery and many moles and dragons came to the village, asking if they could mine the minerals.

The leader of the village, an earth dragon named Brock had agreed to allow them to mine. In return for their hospitality and generosity, the miners agreed to help build better homes for the villagers, to help keep them warmer during the chilly nights. With a shake of the paws, the deal was struck.

This was one month ago.

On this morning however, something would happen that would change the lives of the villagers… forever.

- - - - - - - -

As the morning sun rose over the horizon, a dragon lay on his bed, still fast asleep. This dragon had red scales with a black underside. His wing membrane was also colored black. Two horns stuck out of the sides of his head and curved upwards, like a bull's horns. At the end of his tail, he had a unique weapon. Instead of being a blade or spade like most other dragons, he had a two-headed axe at the end of his tail. The weapon was very sharp and deadly, but he never used the sharp edges on others unless he absolutely had to. It too was colored black, giving it the appearance of shiny, black steel. He groaned and slowly woke up, revealing his blood-red eyes.

He yawned loudly and jumped off of his bed. He arched his back, stretching his legs until some loud pops were heard. He shook himself awake and walked out of his room, attracted to the scent of fresh, cooking meat. He made his way into the kitchen and spotted his mother cooking breakfast. "God morning mom," he said.

"Buenos días (Good morning) Relisan," replied Brizzette, his mother with a Spanish accent. She was a very slender wind dragoness, always catching the eyes of some males whenever she went out. Her scales were a very light blue, like that of the sky. On her blue scales were small, swirling patterns, as if a breeze was blowing on her scales. Her chest and wings were colored a dark gray like a storm cloud. On her head, she had two horns that twisted around each other once before pointing straight up. Hey eyes were a deep royal blue. Down her back, she had small ridges that ran all the way to the end of her tail. She did not have a tail-blade however. Instead, she had a flower that covered her tail's tip. It was blooming and a very pretty sight. This wasn't an accessory. It was a natural trait that she had obtained from her mother, an earth dragoness. Her wind powers had come from her father.

Relisan sat down at the dining table as his mother placed a large slab of meat in front of him to eat. He thanked his mother and began to devour his breakfast. Once he was finished, he licked his chops clean and got up. "I'll see you later mom," he said, giving her a farewell hug.

Brizzette returned the embrace, asking, "Where are you going?"

"Dad placed me on guard duty today at the mines," Relisan replied as he broke the embrace and began walking towards the front door. Before he reached it however, another dragoness greeted him.

"Hey Rel!" said the dragoness from behind him. The red dragon looked back to see his sister greeting him. She had baby blue scales on her body with a very light purple chest and wings. On her head, she had two, pearly-white horns that pointed diagonally away from each other. They were less than half the size of what they should have been at her age, but it gave her a much cuter appearance. She had ridges that ran down her back that were the same color as her horns. Her eyes were the same color as her chest, only slightly darker. At the end of her tail, she had nothing. It was a birth defect that prevented any sort of growth of a tail-blade, but affected nothing else. She never did mind not having one, in fact, she preferred it that way.

"Morning Glaisha," Relisan replied.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"I'm on guard duty today and I don't wanna be late! See ya!" The red dragon turned around, grabbed a cloak to keep him warm in the cool morning air, and went out the door.

The outside air felt wonderful to him. Today was a rare day when the winds that came from Dante's Freezer were calm, so the temperature outside wasn't freezing as it usually was. Relisan took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. _Today's gonna be a good day!_ He thought to himself. He made his way through the small village, careful to avoid any debris from the construction that was going on.

As he continued towards the mines, he came across a dragoness. This dragoness was slender and very sexy in his eyes. She had bright yellow scales that gleamed in the morning sunlight. Her chest and wings were pearly white. She had three horns on her head, sticking straight up, the two on the sides being slightly larger that the middle one. Her eyes looked like they were made of gold, shining beautifully. At the end of her tail, she had three scythe-like blades that gave her a threatening look. The one in the middle was a golden color while the two on the sides were bright white. She is kind, but can be easily annoyed by something. When annoyed, she tends to ignore the one who annoyed her until she's calmed down. She was also his current girlfriend.

She had not yet noticed Relisan sneaking up to her. That is until he said rather loudly, "So how's the realm's prettiest dragoness?" The yellow dragoness jumped and yelped in surprise. She turned around about to hit the dragon that scared her when she realized who it was.

"Oh! Relisan!" she said, "Don't do that! You know I don't like it when you do that!"

Relisan chuckled, "Sorry Shelly, but the moment was too good to pass!" Shelly rolled her eyes and turned away from him. He came around to her side and draped a wing around her. "I'm sorry," he repeated, "Do you forgive me?" Shelly ignored his question and continued to look away from him. The red dragon was becoming worried, _Did I over-step my boundaries?_ He waited for a moment to see if Shelly would forgive him, but she continued to ignore him. "Sh-Shelly… I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to make you angry with…" Shelly suddenly burst into laughter and shook her head. Relisan stared at her in disbelief. "You tricked me!" he complained.

"Serves you right!" she replied.

Relisan gave her a hard stare for a moment, and then began to laugh himself. He could never stay mad at her for too long. "Yeah I guess you're right."

"So, is there something you wanted to talk about?"

"Not really. I just waned to say good morning." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Well… there is something I want to tell you…" He took a deep breath, trying to gather his courage. "Um… Shelly… I uh… I…"

"Yes? Go on…"

"Um… n-never mind. It's not important. I'll come get you after my guard duty so we can have our dinner date. Okay?"

Shelly sighed and nodded. They shared a small farewell kiss on the lips before parting ways. The yellow dragoness walked with sad steps. _Why Relly…_ she thought, _why can't you tell me how you feel? I know you love me… but why haven't you said it?_

Meanwhile, as Reilsan got closer to the mines, he was beating himself up in his mind. _Gah! I'm so stupid! How could you have screwed up this time?! Idiot! It was perfect but once again, I just HAD to choke didn't I?!_ He was so deep into his thoughts that he did not take notice of a dragon that had come up to his side.

"Hello? Relisan? You there?" the dragon tried to grab his friend's attention, but to no avail. "REALMS TO RELISAN!! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"GAH!!" Relisan yelped and fell to the ground on his side. He looked up and saw his friend standing there. "Zakroz! What are you doing?!" he said, rather annoyed.

Zakroz chuckled and extended a paw to help him up. "Sorry Rel, just trying to get your attention."

"Well it worked," the red dragon replied. He accepted his friend's help and looked him over. Zakroz had brown scales and a milky-brown chest with wings to match. On his head he had three straight horns, two that protruded from the sides and one from the top. He had coffee-brown eyes. At the end of his tail, he had a spade-like tail blade. There was also one thing that Zakroz kept to himself. A secret about himself that he had only told Relisan about and no one else. Zakroz was the type of male dragon who… found other males attractive. He was never ashamed about it, but was afraid that others would shun him if they knew. He only trusted Reisan with this secret because they were close friends, but the brown dragon knew that it would not go further than that.

"So what's on your mind?" asked the brown dragon.

Relisan sighed, "It's just that… I keep trying to tell Shelly how I feel about her… but every time I try, I get nervous and all of these thoughts go through my mind. 'What if she doesn't love me back? What if she would break up with me right there? Will my heart be able to handle her rejection?' And so on…"

Zakroz chuckled and looked at his friend, "That's your problem right there. You're thinking way too much about it. Just… let the words flow out of you. Don't think about it. And like you've said many times before, if it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be."

"I guess…" said Relisan, still rather unsure. "Thanks Zak. I gotta get going now. I'll catch up with you later!" With that, he ran the remaining distance he had to reach the mines.

Zakroz sighed as he ran off, _If only he were single…_ he thought.

Relisan finally reached the mines and searched around for his father. "Ah Relisan!" he heard a loud voice call from behind him. "There you are buddy!"

Relisan turned around and saw his father. "Hey dad!" His father, Brock, was the leader of the village. He was a firm but fair ruler who treated everyone like family. He had made friends with many people, including some who held higher positions than he in other towns and the major dragon city of Warfang. He was a silver dragon who seemed to shine with heavenly light. His chest and wings were red in color. His eyes were green in color. His head was rather barren. He had no horns. Instead, he had ridges on his head that were connected with a thin membrane, giving him a Mohawk. The ridges continued all the way down to the base of his tail; these ridges were not connected. From there, they seemed to split into two, as two rows of small horns ran down to his tail blade, which took the form of a spear tip. The membranes on his wings were beginning to deteriorate slightly, showing his age. However, his age did not stop him from acting like a child at times.

"You made it just in time," said Brock, "You'll be guarding the southeast post today. I'm sorry I can't stay and chat for long, but I have an important meeting to get to."

"No worries dad. I'll see you tonight."

Brock nodded and went his way. Relisan walked toward his assigned post, greeting a few of the miners as he did. Once there, he sat on his haunches on a nearby rock and enjoyed the cool breeze that blew in.

_Today really is going to be a good day…_

- - - - - - - -

**Originally, this chapter was longer, but I decided to split it since these introductions to my new OCs was longer than I thought. Anyways there you go! All of these new dragons are based off of people in my life.**

**Relisan: Myself**

**Shelly: A friend who I wish was my girlfriend…**

**Brizzette: My mother**

**Brock: My father**

**Glaisha: My sister**

**Zakroz: A gay friend of mine. And yes we are JUST friends. You people and your sick minds… I swear… -_-**

**The next chapter is when things are really going to get moving!**

**Till next time!**


	3. Revival

**Nothing much to say so…**

**Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

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The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 2: Revival

Deep below the crust, dragons and moles were hard at work digging deeper and deeper, mining out all of the minerals it had to offer.

"This sucks…" one black dragon complained, "we haven't hit a good vein of anything for the past week! I think this mine is just about dead."

"Well dead or not," replied a mole, "we are here for another two weeks so we have to keep digging. Besides, I have a feeling we'll strike a vein soon."

The black dragon rolled his eyes and continued with his digging. He used his shadow claw attack to chip away the earth. _It's times like these I wish I were an earth dragon…_ he thought. He continued to hack and slash, being careful not to cause a cave-in. His frustration and annoyance grew with each strike until finally, with one powerful strike, he vented out all of his frustration against he earth. When he did, he took out a huge chunk of earth and caused the mine to shake a bit. Everyone went on high alert, afraid that the mine was about to cave in. When it didn't, they all turned their angry glares towards the black dragon.

"What were you thinking you idiot?!"

"You could have killed all of us!"

Some of the dragons complained. The black dragon simply rolled his eyes again and turned back to see his work. What he saw caused him to widen his eyes. Right there, stuck into the wall, was a glowing blue sphere. "Hey guys!" he called out to the others, "I think I just found a blue crystal vein!"

Everyone who heard gathered around him and stared in awe. Blue crystal was very valuable and dragons would pay almost anything to get some! Some would want it for the power it gave them while others would want it for their beauty. They all began to help the black dragon mine it out, being extremely careful to not cause too much damage to the crystal. Once it was loosened up, they gently pulled it out of the stone and placed it on the ground.

"Man! Look at the size of this thing!"

"I wonder how much we'll make out of this!"

"Looks like we're going home happy tonight!"

While all of the dragons conversed amongst themselves, the lead mole approached the crystal and inspected it. After looking over the crystal, he came to a conclusion, "This isn't a blue crystal…"

His words brought silence to the dragons that towered over him. "Wh-what do you mean it's not a blue crystal?!" one dragon asked.

"I mean that this is actually a solid piece of ice," the mole explained. "My guess is that something, possibly millions of years old, got frozen in ice and was buried here. If you look closely, you can make out the shape of some sort of creature. We can't sell this. We must give it to scholars, historians, or even geologists. This could very well be a missing link and it would be wrong of us to try to make a profit out of it."

Some of the dragons groaned and complained, but they knew he was right. The mole gently tapped the ice with his mining pick to test its durability. When he did, the pick created a crack in the ice and it began to spider-web. The cracks spread and covered the entire block of ice. Before anyone could say anything however, a bright light emanated from the cracks, blinding everyone there. The next thing they knew, there was only darkness.

- - - - - - - -

The sun was high above Relisan as was laying down on the rock on his belly. Today had been a very quiet day, no Grublins or apes had come to attack. Not that he was complaining, but he was starting to fall asleep with nothing to do. "Well, at least my shift is almost over," he said to himself. "Then I can go home and get ready for my date with Shelly! And tonight will be the night that I tell her I love her." He closed his eyes and began to imagine how it would be like, smiling the whole time.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground and broke Relisan from his daydream. He turned his head towards the mines and saw hat there was a massive hole where the mine's entrance used to be. Smoke rose out of the hole and many dragons had been severely injured. A moment later, a small figure jumped out of the hole. It was definitely not a dragon, but Relisan could not figure out what it was. It's back was towards him and all he could tell was that it was wearing a purple robe and was holding a staff in its right hand.

"Listen up you worthless dragons!" it said, "You are hereby my slaves and will do what I ask of you! If you do I shall spare your miserable lives!" Some of the dragons, including Relisan, became angered when they heard this and began shouting their defiance. Just who did this… thing… think it was? Blowing up the mine and suddenly thinking he could just order them around? All of the able-bodied dragons roared in anger and lunged for him, wanting to kill this creature and avenge the friends he had just killed. The creature saw that they had refused his offer. "If you will not serve me, then you will all perish!" He slammed his staff on the ground and unleashed a powerful shockwave, knocking all of the dragons into the air.

Relisan flipped in the air, trying desperately to regain his balance, but it was no use. He tumbled towards the ground, crashing hard and indenting the earth beneath him. His body was motionless as he had fallen into a state of unconsciousness.

- - - - - - - -

Hours pass before the red dragon finally starts to wake up. He groaned as he opened his eyes. "Dear ancestors… what hit me?" he asked himself, rubbing his head. He slowly got up, wincing from the pain he felt in his legs. Once he was up, he looked around and realized he was in a crater. That's when he remembered the attack. He quickly climbed out of the crater and looked around for the attacker. He wasn't there, but he had left his mark. All of the dragons and moles that had been working on the mine were scattered across the field, dead. His heart began to race and he turned his head to the direction of the village. To his horror, he saw flames and pillars of smoke in that direction. "No…"

He ran back to the village as quickly as he could, the pain he felt slowing him down some. Once he reached the village he began a desperate search for his family and friends. "Mom! Dad! Glaisha!" he called out, praying that he would get a response. "Shelly!! Zakroz!" Nothing but the crackling fire was his response. He didn't give up however. He looked all over the place, turning over stones and hoping that they were all okay. However, after he came upon Shelly's, Zakroz's, and his own home, all of which were destroyed, he broke down and began to cry uncontrollably. He had been searching for two hours and he still could not find any sign of them.

"This-this can't be happening! It just can't!" he cried. He lay there on the ground, letting his tears flow freely from his eyes. Slowly, his sadness was turning into rage. He tried to control it, for fear of losing himself in his anger, but the pain of losing his loved ones was too much. He let out a roar fueled by his anger and pain. His eyes became slits and more feral. He slammed his fist into a nearby stone slab, demolishing it as if it were nothing more than air. "When I find the one responsible for this… I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!!!"

Suddenly, Relisan heard a cold and evil laughter behind him. "So you think you can kill me huh?!" said the voice. The red dragon turned to face his opponent, but before he could attack, an arc of lightning struck him. The electricity surged through him, threatening to tear him apart from the inside out. After releasing an agonized roar, he fell to the ground, unconscious once again. The unknown assailant came up to him and dragged him off by the tail.

"We'll see about that…"

- - - - - - - -

**Oh no! The village has been wiped clear off the map! And what does this enemy have planned for Relisan?!**

**Also, just a little info about myself, just like Relisan (since he is me), when I get mad, I'm afraid of losing control of myself. So… yeah… don't get me mad _**

**The next chapter will be up whenever I can get it up!**

**Till next time!**


	4. New Friends

**Hmm… once again… nothing important to say so…**

**Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

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The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 3: New friends

Relisan had remained unconscious for nearly twenty-four hours. He had no idea of the events that had taken place during his sleep. He felt something nudge him on the shoulder, but he just shrugged it off. Again, his shoulder was nudged and this time, he shifted his body away while letting out a soft groan.

"Wake up," said a soft and unknown voice. "Wake up."

The red dragon finally woke up, slowly opening his eyes and blinking the sleep out of them. "Where… where am I?" he asked to no one in particular. He got up and shook himself to fully awaken. He then looked around and realized that this place was very unfamiliar. "Whoa! Okay, seriously, where am I?!" The place looked like cell in a dungeon of some sort, with the only source of light coming from two lit torches on the walls. There were bars that blocked their only exit.

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied the same voice from before. Relisan turned around and saw a black dragoness standing behind him. She had multiple horns on her head, magenta chest and wings, and a scythe-like tail blade. The red dragon realized who this was almost instantly.

"You're Cynder right?" he asked her. He had heard about this black dragoness and the description matched her perfectly.

The black dragoness nodded her head, "Yup. That's me… the ex-Terror of the Skies herself."

"What are you doing here? Wherever 'here' is…"

"I don't know. All I can remember is some little creature barging into the temple and somehow knocking out the guardians. Before Spyro and I could react, he had knocked us out as well. Next thing we knew, we were in this dungeon. We've been trying to wake you guys up for a while now."

Relisan gave her a confused look. "You guys? What do you mean 'you guys'? He then looked behind her and saw three other dragons. A purple one, obviously Spyro, who was awake and two other dragons still asleep. His jaw dropped as he saw who the two unconscious dragons were. "Glaisha! Zakroz!" He dashed to their side and tried to help Spyro wake them up.

After a few moments, both dragons began to wake. Glaisha opened her light-purple eyes and looked up to see her older brother above her with a wide smile on his face and tears in his eyes. "Relisan!" she said in surprise as she got up. They immediately shared a hug.

"Glaisha! You're alive! I thought I lost you!" said he red dragon as he held his sister.

"Don't I get some love?" said Zakroz as he watched the two embrace. Glaisha and Relisan made room for him and they shared a group hug, happy that some of their friends and family were alive.

After they broke the embrace, they turned to Spyro and Cynder. Zakroz and Glaisha's eyes went wide when they saw whom they were. They were rather stunned that the two dragons that had saved the world only five years ago were both standing in front of them. Neither dragon said a thing.

"Well," Cynder began, "it's obvious that you guys know who we are. But, would you mind telling us who you are?"

Glaisha shook her head to break herself out of her stunned state. "Uh… n-no, not at all. My name's Glaisha. I'm an ice dragoness."

"Hi there," said the brown dragon after her, "my name's Zakroz, or Zak for short. Nice to meet you both," he said. _And it's VERY nice to you Spyro, you sexy purple beast_ he thought to himself. "I'm considered an earth dragon, though I don't really control the earth like other dragons can."

Spyro gave him a confused look, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I don't use stones or solid pieces of earth to attack. Instead," he paused and turned his head towards the right wall. He opened his maw and launched, not an earth missile, but a mud bomb instead. "I use mud," he finished.

"That's… kinda gross to be honest," said Cynder.

Zakroz chuckled, "Well, it's very useful. Especially since I can make quicksand from it or any soft earth that's around."

Last to speak was the red dragon. "And my name's Relisan. I'm Glaisha's older brother and I-"

"Let me guess," Cynder interrupted, "You're a fire dragon right?"

"Nope."

Cynder gave him a confused look. She was certain he would be a fire dragon because of the color of his scales. "Okay… a shadow dragon?" she asked, going by his black scales this time. Relisan only shook his head. Cynder thought for a moment and came up with a third guess. "Oh I get it! You're not a fire OR shadow dragon… you're both! Am I right?" she said with a confident smile.

The red and black dragon chuckled. "A very good guess I will admit Cynder. But once again, you are incorrect. Actually, I don't have an element!"

"What?!" both Cynder and Spyro said in awe.

"I know. Weird right? Instead, I somehow acquired a power over a different kind of magic. I like to call it 'Curse Magic'."

"Curse… magic?" Spyro said.

"Yup. Basically what I do is focus on an image of my intended target. If they are close enough I can place a curse on them. Currently I can use four different kinds. First is the Curse of Paralysis which immobilizes you for a short time, giving me a chance to strike. Next is the Curse of Tongues, as I like to call it. It makes you speak in a completely different and random language, making it harder for spell-casters to chant their spells… and it makes for a good prank as well. Third is the Curse of Agony, which fills your body with pain that only gets stronger as time passes. The longer I remain focused on you, the longer it lasts. And finally, there's the Curse of Illusion. With this ability, I can create an illusion of whoever I want."

"Well, that last one doesn't seem like much of a 'curse' to me," commented Cynder.

"Ah but it is. It's a curse for me. You see, the longer I try to keep the image up, the more it will wear down my energy. It drains so much energy that I could probably hold an image for only about ten or twelve seconds before I pass out. That's why I call it a curse."

"Oh I see" said Cynder.

"Well now that all of the introductions are done," Glaisha spoke up, "Rel, can you tell us anything about what happened back at the village?"

The red dragon shook his head. "All I can remember is that whoever or whatever it was, it came from deep within the mines. It held some sort of staff in its hand… I think that's where his power was channeled." He paused for a moment before continuing, "How about you guys? Can you tell me anything? Did you see mom, dad or Shelly?" his voice grew more frantic as he asked.

Glaisha shook her head, "No. All I remember was an explosion close by the market. I tried to run but something hit me and knocked me out."

"I saw Lord Brock and Lady Brizzette," said Zakroz. "I saw them running with Shelly. They were trying to get away from the destruction. A ball of fire hurdled towards them but it missed. It hit the building just ahead of them and… as they were passing by it… the building… collapsed." The sibling dragons both gasped when they heard this. Glaisha almost immediately began crying. Relisan tried to remain strong, but he could not stop the tears from flowing down his muzzle. "I wanted to go help them, I really did, but I was knocked out before I could reach them. I'm so sorry."

"This isn't fair!" Relisan cried, "Why did it have to be our parents?! They were good dragons! They didn't do anything wrong!"

"Relisan," began Spyro, "calm down. There's still hope. Maybe your parents were able to escape just before the building crashed over them and-"

"NO!" Relisan suddenly shouted. He glared at Spyro with eyes that were full of anger, pain, and sadness. "There's no way my parents could have escaped! I saw the remains of the village! Everything was gone! EVERYTHING! My parents and the love of my life are gone! Do you even know what that's like?!" Before he could get a response, the red dragon stormed off into a corner and lied down.

Spyro was about to walk over there and talk to him when Zakroz stopped him. "Don't," he said. "At times like these… it's best to leave him alone for a while. Talking won't do much good for him. It'll only get him angrier." Spyro looked at the brown dragon. He wanted to talk to Relisan, but he knew that Zakroz knew the red dragon better so if he said to leave him alone, then it was best to follow his advice. He decided to instead just sit there, next to Zakroz while Cynder led Glaisha to a different corner to comfort her.

After several moments, Zakroz began to look at Spyro more closely. He noticed how toned and big his muscles were. _Such a strong body… it's so… tempting_ he thought.

Spyro took notice of his staring and asked, "Is there something wrong Zak?"

"Hmm? Oh nothing. I was just admiring how strong you are. I wish I could be that strong."

"Uhhh… th-thanks" said Spyro, not really knowing where this was going.

"You know, I've been so lonely lately. I really need a strong and handsome dragon like yourself around in my life." Zakroz began to rub Spyro's left foreleg, causing the purple dragon to move it away from him.

"Umm… I-I don't really feel comfortable right now…" said Spyro.

"Oh that's not a problem. I know of many ways to make you feel more… comfortable." The brown dragon brought his head next to Spyro's ear and whispered in a lustful tone, "And I know how to make you feel like a true dragon."

Spyro shivered from this comment and took a step away from Zakroz. "Uhhh… Z-Zakroz," he began, "listen… I'm flattered by your… um… offer, but I'm not that kind of dragon. Plus, Cynder and I are already mates."

Zakroz's eyes widened and his face burned with embarrassment when he heard this. "Oh dear ancestors! I-I'm so sorry! I-I had no idea! Honest! If I did I would have never done such a thing!"

"It's alright" Spyro said, forgiving Zakroz.

A long and awkward moment of silence passed between the two of them. Finally, Relisan approached them. "Hey Spyro…" he said as he sat down with them. "I'm sorry about before… I wasn't thinking straight… I didn't mean to let my anger loose on you…"

"It's okay Relisan, I understand," said the purple dragon. "I too know the pain of losing someone who was so close to you…" He was talking about Ignitus, the fire guardian who was like a father to Spyro. He had given his life so that Spyro and Cynder may go on and defeat Malefor. Even after so long, the wound was still fresh. He shook his head to push that memory away for the time being. He looked over to where Cynder and Glaisha were and saw them headed towards the group.

"Okay," Cynder said, "So I'm guessing we can all agree that we have to focus on the task at hand right?"

"Which is what?" asked Relisan.

"Figuring out what's going on."

"Right."

"Okay, so here's what I'm thinking," Cynder began. Unfortunately, before she could reveal her plan, she suddenly vanished into thin air. Everyone stared wide-eyed at where Cynder once was. Before they knew it, Zakroz disappeared as well.

"What the hell is going on?!" said the red and black dragon.

"I don't-" Glaisha was not even able to finish her sentence as she disappeared too.

"Glaisha! No!! Spyro what are we gonna…!" Relisan stopped his sentence as he turned around and noticed the purple dragon was missing as well. "I have a bad feeling about this…" he said before disappearing himself.

All that was left behind was an empty, and eerily quiet cell…

- - - - - - - -

**Uh oh! What do you think is gonna happen to them?**

**I apologize for these first few chapters… I know they're all just talking and there's no action… but I promise you all that the next chapter will have some!**

**Next chapter: The Games Begin!**

**Till next time!**


	5. Let the Games Begin

**Hey guys. Sorry this update is late… I lost my inspiration to continue writing but thanks to my great friends The Wyrm Twins, I got it back and im ready to write some more! So a big thanks to them and a giant cookie for the two of you!**

**Before I start, I also have to give thanks to The Mad Queen of Madness for allowing me to borrow some of her madness for this chapter. So a giant cookie for her too!**

**And now, we begin! Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

- - - - - - - -

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 4: Let the Games Begin!

As quickly as Cynder had disappeared, she reappeared in a very large and completely darkened room. "Gah!" she squealed in surprise of the sudden change of scenery. "Where am I?!"

"What's going on?!" came another voice, "Why can't I see anything?!"

"Glaisha, is that you?" Cynder asked, recognizing the voice.

"Cynder is that you? Where are you? I can't see a thing!"

Zakroz, Spyro, and Relisan quickly appeared as well and all five dragons were talking amongst themselves, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. They were so focused on themselves that they did not notice another, completely unfamiliar voice ring out. "Silence," it said. None of them heard the voice and continued talking. "I said… SILENCE!!!" roared the voice. The dragons finally stop their chattering and took notice. "That's better. Now then-"

"Who are you?!" interrupted Cynder in an angry tone. "Are you the one that kidnapped us?!"

"Don't you know the meaning of SILENCE?!?" roared the voice as ropes made of magical energy tied themselves around Cynder's muzzle to keep her quiet. "I always knew dragons weren't very bright but you take it to a whole new level." Cynder growled loudly at the insult. "Now then, who I am and where we are is not important right now, you will find out soon enough. But what is important is my proposal to you five."

"What sort of proposal?" asked Spyro.

"You see, long ago dragons betrayed my kind and as a result, I am the only one of my race left. As such, I plan on taking over and making the dragons pay for their betrayal!"

"Like we're just gonna stand by and let you!" exclaimed Relisan.

"I know you won't, and that's why I captured you all. You five are the more powerful dragons that I could find. Using my immense magical powers it wasn't that difficult a task. All of you are going to play a series of 'games' for my entertainment… and for the fate of your world. Should you win them all, you shall be set free and I will not pursue my goal of ruling over you pathetic, backstabbing creatures. But, should you all be eliminated and lose, you will become my personal slaves and help me on my quest. Being the five most powerful dragons, it won't be much trouble on your parts. So, is it a deal? Oh wait, you don't have a choice! The first game starts now!"

As soon as the voice finished its speech, torches were immediately lit up along the walls and the ropes around Cynder's muzzle disappeared. The five friends then realized that, though they were in the same room, they were separated by thick walls that seemed to lead somewhere.

"For this first game," the voice spoke up again, "you will have to find your way through this maze. Each path is different for each of you. If you are able to make it to the end before the roof above you crushes you, then you win. If not, you will be eliminated from the rest of the games. Any questions?"

Relisan looked around himself and sighed, _Great,_ he thought,_ I hate mazes._ "So let me get this straight," he spoke out loud, "once all five of us are eliminated, you take over the world?"

"Yup. That's the idea."

"Well I see one little flaw in your plan. We can fly outta here!" The red dragon jumped into the air and pumped his wings, trying to fly over the walls. However, just as he was about to, he hit his head on an invisible force field… hard. He fell back to the floor and groaned in pain as he rubbed his head.

"Ha! You think I didn't take that into account? Well guess again! Now get your scaly asses moving! I'm growing tired of talking!"

Relisan got back on his paws and began to make his way through the maze, along with everyone else. Both Spyro and Zakroz used their earthly powers to sense where their paths would lead them, making it easier for them to get through the maze. Cynder used her Cloak of Shadows to merge with the darkness around her and move faster through the maze. Relisan and Glaisha got the bad end of the deal because their powers were of no use to them, so they had to keep on guessing where to go.

Soon, Spyro came across a large open area on his path. As he entered, he noticed that there was only one exit and began to head that way. "Well this was rather pointless…" he said to himself. As he neared the exit, a large creature dropped from the slowly descending ceiling and landed right in front of Spyro, causing him to jump back. The creature looked like a regular grublin, same size and everything. "Wow. Such a dramatic entrance for a little grublin. This won't take a second." He lunged at the grublin, ready to end its life. As he swiped at it, his paws just passed right through him and it disappeared. "What the…!"

"Hehehe… sorry to disappoint you, but it wont be that easy!" Spyro turned around and saw the very same grublin standing behind him, cackling.

"Who… or what… are you?"

"You can call me Mania," said the grublin. "And I won't let you pass until you have defeated me." The purple dragon lunged at him again, but ended up with the same result, his paw went right though and the image disappeared. "They don't call me Mania for nothing! I can make so many images of myself it drives people insane!" Suddenly, Spyro was surrounded by no less than fifteen grublins. "You'll never defeat me!"

- - - - - - - -

Zakroz was in no better position. He had just entered the open area on his path and was greeted by his opponent. "And who might you be?" asked the brown dragon.

"My name is… Dementia," said the being. He looked like a knight in black armor, holding a massive sword across his back. Through the slits of his helmet, his bright, soulless eyes shined a sickly green color. With one hand, Dementia grabbed the hilt of his blade and unsheathed it. He held it up and pointed it directly at Zakroz. "And here is where you die!"

He dashed towards Zakroz and swung his sword. He dodged it easily and Dementia skid to a halt behind him. The brown dragon looked at him and smirked. "Is that all you got?" Suddenly, a shallow gash opened up on his side. Zak's eyes widened in shock and pain as he realized he was actually hit. _But how?!_ He thought. He looked back up to where Dementia was only to see he was no longer there.

"Surprised?" said the knight who stood far to the dragon's left. "Well you shouldn't be. My very name should have given it away. Dementia… a disorder that affects the brain. It makes you believe things are there when they are not. It causes you to lose you ability to do even the simplest of tasks. You believed you saw me dash towards you when in reality, I merely walked up to your side and cut you." At this point, Zakroz was frozen with fear. "So in other words… my powers allow me to fuck with your mind!" He once again charged at Zakroz and swung his massive sword…

- - - - - - - -

Glaisha continued to walk through her path. She had gotten lost many times by this point and she was getting annoyed. Finally, after what seemed like countless dead ends, she finally found her way around and made it to the open area on her path. She looked around and saw that there were many kinds of items lying around. Whips, ropes, chains and other items of the sort. There was even a bed in the middle of the area. _Well that's odd…_ she thought. As she continued to look, she saw the exit and someone standing there blocking it.

"Well hello there sexy," said the stranger. He was a cheetah just like any other. However, this one was very attractive. He had well toned muscles with a face that any female would fall for. His most striking feature however was his eyes. They were a beautiful blue color like shining blue crystals. They were very attractive and they did most of the talking for him.

"Umm… hi…" greeted Glaisha, "who are you?"

"Oh my apologies, where are my manners? You can just call me H.S. And may I ask what is the name of the beauty that's standing before me?"

"Umm… I'm Glaisha," replied the baby blue dragoness. "Well it was nice meeting you H.S. but I gotta go." She walked past him and tried to go through the exit but the cheetah jumped in front of her and stopped her. "Can you move please?" she asked, starting to get a little annoyed with this guy.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Why not stay a while? I'll make it worth your while" he said, giving her a sexy smile. Glaisha however was unaffected by it. True, she did see that he was a very attractive creature, but he was of a different species and therefore, she was unaffected.

"As _tempting_ as that sounds," she said sarcastically, "I'd rather not." She tried to go around him but she was stopped when he put his paw on her shoulder.

"Oh but my dear… you don't have a choice!!" he said as he pushed hard against her shoulder, sending her to the floor on her back. "Do you want to know what my name stands for?" he asked as he slowly approached her.

"It's Hyper Sexuality!!"

- - - - - - - -

Cynder walked slowly through what she hoped was the right path in her maze. She had dropped her Cloak of Shadows long ago as it was taking too much of her energy. She figured she should save her energy in case she ran into trouble. She walked into her open area but thought nothing of it. She was only focused on getting out of that maze before being crushed by the roof. She made her way to the left, where her path continued but she stopped in her tracks when she heard someone laughing. "Who's there?"

Her question was answered with the appearance of her opponent. She looked like a dragon but she had a very odd coloration of scales. Instead of having one solid color for her scales, she had multiple colors, reds, greens, yellows, whites and so on. Her scales looked as if a mob had attacked her with paint brushes and smeared the colors all over the place. What was even more out of place was what she was wearing on her head: a jester's hat. "Hi!" greeted the multi-colored dragoness before breaking out into a maniacal laughter.

"What the hell? What's so funny?!" asked an irritated Cynder.

"Oh… nothing," said the odd dragoness, "I was just thinking of what's about to happen to you. Name's Hysteria by the way."

"About to happen to me? What's about to happen to me?"

Hysteria looked at Cynder dead in the eyes and spoke with a more serious tone. "I can tell you have many fears in your heart. This is good because I'm going to make you lose your mind to those fears! You'll cry so hard you'll end up laughing like a maniac like me! Prepare yourself for fear like none you have ever experienced before!"

- - - - - - - -

Relisan walked along his path, but came across another dead end. "Damn it to hell! I hate mazes!!" he said angrily. He took a deep breath to calm himself and walked back the way he came. "I knew I should have gone to the right on that fork…" He retraced his steps, made it back to the fork on the road, and took the other path, which led him to an open area. "Huh… I wonder what this is for?" he wondered out loud. Suddenly, he heard some shots being fired as arrows were released from their bows. He saw the arrows heading straight towards him but was not fast enough to dodge them. The arrows were so powerful that when two of them tore through his wing membranes, the flung him back into a wall and held him there. Almost immediately four more arrows were fired and pierced his limbs, one limb per arrow. He roared in pain and the arrows held him in place against the wall. Every time he struggled to free himself, the pain only increased.

"Why are you struggling when there is no means of escape?" asked a shadowy figure in front of Relisan. The one who spoke was small, about the size of a mole. He wore a mask to cover his face, making him look like an executioner. He held a whip in his hands.

"Who are you?!"

"I am Masochism the Torturer and I'm going to make you endure every form torture known to dragon-kind!" he said as he cracked his whip.

- - - - - - - -

**Hehehe… not one, not two… but FIVE cliffies in one chapter! I feel so evil!**

**Anyways, thanks again to The Wyrm Twins for helping me regain my inspiration and thanks to The Mad Queen of Madness for allowing me to borrow her ideas! You guys rock!**

**Till next time!**


	6. The Battles of Madness

**My apologies for the late update… finals were a pain in the ass… but they are over now which means…….. WINTER BREAK!!! Woohoo!!**

**And I also have something to say to everyone but that will be at the ending A/N.**

**So now enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

- - - - - - - -

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 5: Battles of Madness

Spyro could feel his mind slowly slipping away. He had been running around the entire open area, slashing at the grublin images, hoping that one of them would be the real one, but luck was not on his side. With each failed attempt, not only did he grow angrier and angrier, but he would also obtain new scratches and bruises across his body. He had already suffered multiple wounds of the like. They were not serious, but they were many and were beginning to take their toll on his body. Not to mention that he was also beginning to feel the effects of mania on his mind.

"Damn it!" Spyro yelled as his attack failed again. "Why can't I find you?!" He slashed at four more but all were fakes and only resulted in more scratches on his body. He roared in anger and continued to attack mindlessly.

"Ha! I see that you're starting to go insane! That's good!" said Mania, his voice echoing around the purple dragon. "At the pace you are going you'll be out of commission in no time!"

Soon, Spyro had become so enraged at his opponent that his scales were becoming darker. His eyes began to lose their bright purple color and were slowly being replaced by soulless, glowing white eyes. However, Spyro caught himself and realized what was happening to him. "N-no…" he said, "I-I can't lose control!" He fought against the darkness within him, not letting it gain control over him. Eventually, his scales and eyes returned to normal and he began to calm himself down. He had to figure out how to beat this enemy without losing his sanity… but how?

That's when he remembered his training he had received from the guardians. He had to relax his mind so that he could better focus on the task at hand. He took several deep breaths and relaxed his body and mind. _Okay… lets try this…_ he thought to himself. He began to use his earth powers to sense the area around him, like he had before to find his way to the open area. He was hoping to be able to sense where the real grublin was and take him out. However, what he felt was something he was not expecting. Instead of sensing the grublin in one spot, he sensed him everywhere! Spyro knew instantly what this meant: his enemy was not creating images of himself. Rather, he was running in circles around him at such high speeds that it gave the illusion of multiple grublins. "Looks like I'll have to use it," he said out loud.

Green energy began to surround Spyro as he floated into the air. A low hum could be heard as he charged up his energy, preparing to unleash it in one powerful blast. Mania, however, continued to run around Spyro, trying to figure out what he was going to do. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what was about to happen. "Oh shit!" he yelled.

It was too late to react though. With a mighty roar, Spyro unleashed his earth fury, sending powerful shockwaves through the ground beneath him. The attack was so powerful that the ground began to ripple violently like a lake whose calmness was disturbed by a large rock falling into it.

Mania tried to fight against it but it was no use. The large ripples in the earth knocked him up high into the air, causing the images of himself to vanish instantly. Spyro sensed this and, without wasting a second, he leapt into the air, aiming himself at Mania. As he drew closer, Spyro lowered his head and impaled the creature with his deadly sharp horns.

Almost instantly, Mania began to cough up blood, splattering Spyro's purple scales with crimson red. "D-Damn… you…" he managed to say. The purple dragon then swung his head in a downward motion, freeing the grublin from his horns and sending him crashing to the ground. Before he hit the ground though, he vanished in a puff of dark smoke.

Spyro landed back on the ground, confused about what he just saw. "Where did he go?" he asked no one in particular. "Oh well, as long as he's out of the way, it shouldn't matter." He turned towards the passage that his enemy was guarding and began to walk down it. Surprisingly, this path was straight, no turns to make and no other possible paths to confuse him, nothing of the sort. Along the way, he found a few red and green crystals to restore his health and energy. He thanked the ancestors for this because his last attack completely drained him.

After absorbing the crystals, he continued down the path only to be blocked by a door. Spyro looked at it curiously before pressing his weight against it to open it. On the other side, he was met with bright sunlight that blinded him for a second. After his eyes adjusted he looked around and realized he was out of the maze. He had successfully gotten through the first game.

- - - - - - - -

Zakroz looked around frantically trying to pinpoint his enemy's location, but found it difficult to do so when he was surround by a crowd of dragons. He knew that they weren't really there, but his mind was being influenced by Dementia's powers. Zakroz tried to fight against it but it was no use.

"Stop messing with my mind!" Zakroz yelled, still trying his hardest to fight back. "Why don't you stop hiding and fight me like a man!" He fired a mud bomb into the middle of the fake crowd. The mud splattered on the floor, creating a large puddle of mud. Some of the fake dragons disappeared due to his attack, but the were quickly replaced by others.

"How can I stop messing with your mind," said Dementia in an eerily calm voice, "when it is the power that I possess?" Seeing that the brown dragon was distracted, Dementia made a quick dash towards him, ignoring the mud under his feet. He slashed his chest, leaving a deep and long gash.

Zakroz roared from the pain he fell and closed his eyes tightly. Blood flowed freely from his new wound. _Damn it,_ he thought, _how am I supposed to beat him?!_ He slowly opened his eyes and gasped at what he saw. There, on the mud he had released only seconds ago, were footprints. _That's it!_ He began to gather mud in his maw, creating another mud bomb. Once it was ready, he fired it in what seemed like a random direction. The results were the same as before, the mud splattered and created a puddle.

Dementia only stared at the brown dragon as he continued to fire at random moments and in random directions. _What is he up to?_ He thought. He decided to not wait to find out and made another dash towards Zakroz. He slashed at his side, cutting deep into his flesh. The brown dragon roared in pain once again but did not stop what he was doing. "What are you up to boy?!" Dementia said as he dashed by him once again, this time on the dragon's other side, making the small cut he had left there earlier even deeper. Zakroz finally fell to the ground, closing his eyes tightly in pain. "Hmph. I have no idea what you were planning to do, but your life ends here!" Dementia made one final dash towards the fallen dragon, raising his massive sword high.

What the knight did not notice, however, was that he was running on top of all the mud that Zakroz had laid out. The brown dragon felt him coming and reacted quickly. "I don't think so!" he said as he used his powers to harden the mud under the knight's feet. Dementia's right foot instantly became stuck in the hardened mud and, due to his momentum, fell forward onto the mud-covered floor. His sword flew from his hands as he lost his grip on it and it landed on the floor with a loud clang.

"What the hell?! What did you do?!" asked Dementia.

"To put it simply," began Zakroz as he staggered to get on his paws, "I'm a mud dragon. I can control any source of mud that is around me. Since you were running across it, I sensed you coming towards me. Once I locked on to your position, I hardened the mud under you to catch you." As he finished his explanation, he looked around and noticed that the fake dragons were all gone. He also noticed that Dementia had lost his sword. He put two and two together and figured… "That sword is that source of your power isn't it?" He took slow steps towards the sword, careful not to worsen his own wounds.

"No!" yelled Dementia, "Get away from my Demented Blade!"

"So… it _is_ the source of your power…" As Zakroz neared the blade, he launched one final mud bomb high into the air. As it flew, he quickly hardened it. When it crashed down on top of the blade, the mud bomb shattered it into a thousand pieces. "Whoops… how clumsy of me…" Before Dementia could react, Zakroz manipulated the mud that surrounded the knight and had it cover him completely. "Now die!" He raised and open paw into the air and quickly clenched it into a fist. The mud quickly hardened and constricted Dementia, crushing his armor and body. Then, in a puff of black smoke, Dementia vanished.

Zakroz snorted and turned around, heading towards the now opened path. He walked very slowly however for his injuries caused him pain with each step. Blood flowed freely from his three deep wounds and he was beginning to feel feint. "I… I can't… go on like this…" he said, "I've lost… too much blood… I…" he stopped his sentence when he saw a red glow ahead of him. He approached it as quickly as he could and saw the red gems that he so desperately needed. He absorbed every single red gem that was there, which healed his wounds mostly.

"Ahh… that's much better," he said with relief. He looked over the injuries he had received and noticed that they weren't one hundred percent healed. He sighed, "Looks like those are gonna scar… so much for having flawless scales… Oh well." He continued to walk down the straight path until he reached a door. He opened the door and walked out of the maze.

- - - - - - - -

"Come on!" yelled H.S as he continued to attack Glaisha with his whip, "Let's see you move that sexy ass!" The ice dragoness did her best to dodge every one of his attacks, but she was not successful every time, resulting is some painful cuts and bruises on her body. However, she was not the only one who had suffered damage throughout the fight. H.S had received some scratches on his face and chest from the times that he had pinned Glaisha down and tried to have his way with her. Each time he tried, the dragoness would kick him off or scratch him with her claws.

Glaisha rolled to the side to avoid the crack of the whip. She then jumped into the air and back flipped to avoid another one. "Yeah! That's it!" H.S exclaimed, "That sexy hourglass body! Those agile moves! You're really turning me on!"

"Shut up you sick pervert!" Glaisha said in anger. She dodged another one of his attacks and immediately lunged at him, hoping to shut his mouth once and for all.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough and was not able to reach him before he could attack again. The cheetah swung his whip at her. Somehow, the whip managed to wrap itself tightly around Glaisha's muzzle, startling the dragoness and causing her to stop in her tracks. H.S used this distraction to his advantage and lunged at her with some rope in hand. Quick as a flash he tied up her hind legs and her front legs together.

"You put up quite a fight beautiful," the cheetah spoke softly, "but now you've lost and it's time for the real fun to begin." A dirty and perverted smile began to grow on his face as he thought of all the things he was going to do to her. The dragoness struggled to free herself, but to no avail. The whip was still wrapped tightly around her muzzle. "It's pointless to struggle. These ropes are very strong. Not even a full grown dragon can break these easily." He picked her up and took her to the bed. He laid her down on it and got on top of her. He placed his mouth next to her ear and whispered softly, "Don't worry, it'll be fun." He reached down his body and began to undo his leggings.

Glaisha looked at him with nothing but anger in her eyes. _Oh hell no!_ She thought. She released a low growl from deep within her throat as she began to lower her body temperature. Soon, little icicles began forming all over her body. The ropes and the whip began to freeze over. She began to struggle once again against the now weakened ropes and whip. The more she struggled, the weaker her bindings became until finally, she shattered them into a million little pieces.

The cheetah's eyes widened when he saw this. "Oh crap!" he said as he tried to get up to avoid any more injuries. Glaisha however was not going to allow that. She wrapped her four legs around him and held him close to her body.

"This is what you wanted isn't it?" she said as she continued to lower her body temperature, "Your body against mine?" Ice soon began to form on the cheetah's fur, freezing the hairs on his body. The ice began to spread and threatened to encase his entire body.

"Please! No! Stop!" he begged.

"I don't think so! You mess with the bull, you get the horns!" Soon, the cheetah was completely frozen over. The look of horror was forever painted on his face… that is, until Glaisha pushed him over the bed and sent him crashing onto the floor, destroying him completely. The dragoness jumped off of the bed and shook off the remaining icicles from her body. "That's one less pervert the world needs to worry about."

She walked down the path that he was guarding, hoping that she would not run into any more trouble. She looked up and noticed that the ceiling was getting very close to her. "Crap! Gotta move!" She began to run the remaining distance, stopping only for a second to use the red and green gems she literally ran into. She reached the door, opened it and jumped out into the sunlight.

- - - - - - - -

"Please! Stop it!" Cynder cried, holding her head. She was being forced to live through her greatest fears over and over again by Hysteria. She kept seeing herself back under Malefor's evil control and being forced to kill off everyone she held dear: the guardians, her friends, and Spyro. Every time the scene was replayed, she would always kill them in different and sickening ways. She couldn't take it anymore. She wanted it to stop but she was powerless against her enemy's ability.

The randomly colored dragoness, Hysteria, only laughed and giggled at Cynder. "Don't worry," she said, "all you have to do is give in to the madness and it will all be over! It's that simple!"

Cynder shook her head. _No! I can't give in,_ she thought. _I have to stay strong! For the guardians,_ and image of each guardian flashed through her mind, _for my friends,_ an image of all of her friends, old and new, appeared in her mind's eye, _for Spyro!_ A picture of the dragon she loved stuck to her mind like glue. _Spyro… he'd never give up! And if he won't give up then neither will I!_ She seemed to draw strength from this thought and began to fight against Hysteria's influence even harder than before.

The multi-colored dragoness stopped her insane laughter and gasped as her grip on Cynder's mind began to slip. "N-no way!" she exclaimed, "She's resisting?! That's impossible!" That split second of distraction was all Cynder needed to finally break free from her fears. With a mighty roar, she pushed Hysteria's influence back and lunged at her, plunging her scythe-like tail blade into her heart. The dragoness gasped as the pain shot through her body.

"Nice try," Cynder said, "but I'm stronger than you think." She pulled her tail blade out from Hysteria's chest, causing a river of blood to begin flowing out of her.

"Heh… looks like you win…" the multi-colored dragoness said before dispersing into smoke.

"Well, now that that's over with, maybe I can move on…" Cynder began to walk towards the exit when she had the sudden urge to look up, remembering about the ceiling. When she did, she began to panic. It was only inches above her head! She began running as fast as her legs could take her. Even so, she still could not see the end of the path. She then felt her horns beginning to scratch the ceiling. Quick to act, she used her Cloak of Shadows and moved even faster through the darkness. She zoomed past the red and green gems that were along the way and continued to race for the exit. "Come on! I cant be that far away from the exit!" As soon as she said this, she reached the end of the path. She rematerialized into her physical form and opened the door that stood between her and her freedom. She jumped through the door with barely a second to spare, her tail narrowly missing being crushed by the ceiling.

- - - - - - - -

**Phew! They all made it! Oh wait! What about Relisan?! We'll find out what's happened to him in the next chapter =P**

**Now then, if you read the A/N at the top, you'd know that I have something to say. Well, I totally didn't realize this till now, but last month, on November 23****rd****, 2009, marked ONE FULL YEAR THAT I'VE BEEN ON FANFICTION!! **

**I can't believe it! It's been over a year since I first joined this site and began writing my stories! I have soooo many people to thank! I can't list them all because the list would go on forever! But you guys know who you are and I am truly thankful for you all! If it weren't for you, my loyal and incredible fans, I would not be here saying this right now! **

**So much has happened over this past year, so many things have changed. But one thing hasn't and that's the loyalty and friendships I have made ever since I first joined up! (Wow… I'm actually getting teary eyed as I'm writing this)**

**I love you guys! I'm so glad that I get the privilege of calling you my friends! I promise you that I will continue writing during this second year and I won't let you guys down!!**

**Once again, I love you guys!**

**The Forever Thankful, NoOneToWorryAbout**


	7. Meeting Ripto

**Hm… with all the time I now have on my hands you'd think I would update more often eh? Well guess again!**

**I got a PS3 with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time for Christmas! So I've been pretty busy lol.**

**Anyways, please enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

- - - - - - - -

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 6: Meeting Ripto

Spyro had to blink several times before his eyes finally adjusted to the bright sunshine. Once they did, he took a look at his surroundings. He was standing on the stone floor of what appeared to be a coliseum of sorts. Everywhere he looked he was surrounded by a massive stonewall that rounded around him. In front of him, high up the wall, was a seat, more like a throne, that seemed to jut straight out from the wall. Above the seat was a roof that provided shade from the sun and magnificent tapestry on either side to provide not only extra shade, but also protection from any dust or debris that the wind could carry. Far below the seat, at ground level, was an archway that led to the underground portion of the coliseum, where the dungeon cells were located.

"Something tells me I'm not in Warfang anymore," Spyro said sarcastically. He looked behind him to take a look at where he had come from. To his surprise, all that was behind him were five, rather small, cubes. If the purple dragon were to try to get inside of it, he would not be able to fit. "But… how is that possible?" Spyro asked.

He wasn't given much time to ponder this however as a flash of light appeared from the cube furthest away from him. Spyro shielded his eyes from the flash. After the light faded, he lowered his wing. He was shocked at what he saw; standing where the flash appeared, was Zakroz. "Whoa!" the brown dragon exclaimed, "Somebody turn down the sun!" He shook his head to get rid of the spots he saw due to the sudden brightness.

"Zakroz, is that you?" Spyro called out.

The brown dragon looked to his left and saw his purple friend walking towards him. "Spyro?" he said. "Where are we?"

"Beats me. I just got out of my maze not even a minute ago." Spyro looked at his friend and noticed that three large scars had appeared on his body. One was on his chest that ran from his left shoulder and across his torso to the right, diagonally. The other two were almost identical; both were on either side of his body, close to his back, and began around his midsection. They both ran down his body and seemed to meet up at the base of his tail. Spyro winced a little when he saw those, thinking of how painful those must have been. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" replied Zakroz. "Oh, you mean these new scars? Don't worry about it I'll be fine… I just wish they'd go away, I don't really like scars…" He looked around and noticed only he and Spyro were out there. "Looks like we're the only two that's made it out so far…"

Several minutes passed as the two dragons waited on their companions. Soon, two more flashes of light appeared, one right after the other. After the light faded, Glaisha and Cynder were standing there, momentarily blinded. After they regained their sight, they saw Spyro and Zakroz and grouped up with them. They spent some time together, making sure they were all okay and telling each other what they had to go through.

"I'm just glad that it's over…" Glaisha expressed, "for now anyways…"

"I can't wait to see what's in store for us next…" Cynder said sarcastically.

"Hey guys," Zakroz said, catching everyone's attention," where's Relisan?"

Glaisha's eyes widened as she realized the absence of her brother. "I… I thought he was with you and Spyro!"

The purple dragon shook his head, "No, I was the first one out and I haven't seen him!"

"Then that means…!" Glaisha shook her head, "No! He must be all right! Maybe he's just not done with his maze! He's always hated them."

Cynder shook her head, "If he hasn't completed it then… he must have run out of time… our mazes may have been separate, but I'm sure that we all had the same amount of time to finish it and I barely made it out of mine…"

Glaisha had a look of disbelief on her face. She refused to believe that her brother had been crushed in the maze. "No! He has to be okay! He…"

"Ah! Fresh air!" a voice said loudly, as if relieved. The other dragons all looked towards the direction of the voice and there, coming out of the archway, was Relisan. "Man, the air down there was thick…" he said to himself. He looked up and saw his friends and sister looking at him. With a big smile on his face he caught up with them, "Hey guys! You finally made it out! I was beginning to worry."

"Relisan?! You were out here this whole time?" asked Zakroz.

"Well not exactly. See, after I exited my maze, none of you were around, so I decided to do some exploring, hoping that I would be able to find a way out of here."

"And did you?" asked Glaisha.

The red and black dragon shook his head in defeat. "No… I couldn't. This place is locked down tight. Every possible exit's been sealed off by a barrier like the one that prevented us from flying in the maze."

"So then… we HAVE to play these games if we want to get out?"

"Precisely!" said the same mysterious voice from before. Suddenly, smoke exploded from the ground in front of them. As the smoke cleared, a small figure could be seen standing in the smoke. When it cleared completely, the dragons could see a small creature, standing on two legs and clothed in purple robes. It had red skin and a single, curvy horn on its head. In it's right hand, it held a scepter. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ripto… though I'm sure YOU already know that…" he said, pointing his scepter accusingly at the purple dragon, "… Malefor!"

"Malefor?! What are you talking about?!" Spyro said defensively. "I'm not Malefor! He was defeated more than five years ago!"

Ripto stepped closer and took a better look at the purple dragon. He noticed that he looked much different than Malefor, the only similarity he could see was the color of their scales. "Hmm… you don't look like him or sound like him… so I guess I'll take your word for it…"

"How do you know Malefor anyways?"

"That treacherous dragon wiped out my kind after he had promised to help defend us! He stabbed us in the back and now I am the only one of my kind that remains!"

"Wow… I'm sorry to hear that… you're not the only one who has suffered because of him."

"Spyro's right," said Relisan. "But Malefor's dead now so your grudge against him should be dead as well."

Ripto gave them all a hateful glare. "My grudge isn't only against Malefor! It's against all dragons! They all betrayed us! Malefor promised to defend us against their treachery but he instead joined them!

"And now, the time for vengeance has arrived! That is why I captured you all! I knew that if I just began to attack, your kind would take me down in now time! That is why when you all lose, you will help me force your brethren into submission whether you like it or not!" Ripto raised his scepter into the air, "Now rest up! You'll need it for tomorrow's game!" He waved his scepter and all five dragons vanished before him. He sent them back to their holding cell.

"Once I rule this world, I will make sure that they all suffer!"

- - - - - - - -

**Woohoo! I got this out before the New Year!**

**So now the gang's finally met Ripto and know why he hates dragons so much. What does the riptoc have in store for them? You're gonna have to wait till next year to find out! =P**

**I hope you all have a good new year's eve! Don't do anything I wouldn't do! Hehe, I'm just kidding… what fun would that be right? LOL!**

**Happy New Year's!!!**

**Till 2010!!**


	8. Refugees

**Not much to say today so… Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

- - - - - - - -

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 7: Refugees

Terrador paced around the room with the Pool of Visions. He had just returned from another failed attempt at locating Spyro and Cynder. He anxiously awaited the return his fellow guardians, Volteer and Cyril. "Where could they be?" he asked himself. "I told them to be back by sundown." He looked out the window. The sun was almost completely set and many stars were already visible in the heavens above. "Ancestors… I hope they didn't get caught as well." Almost as if on cue, the door behind the green dragon opened, revealing an ice blue dragon behind it. Terrador looked behind himself and was relieved. "There you are Cyril. I was starting to become worried."

Cyril chuckled, "Worried? About me? Come now old friend, you give me far too little credit. If I were you, I'd worry more about that babble-mouth Volteer."

The earth guardian gave a small laugh and smiled briefly, but as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. "Any luck?" he asked seriously.

The ice dragon shook his head, "I'm sorry, but no. I followed every lead I had, both promising and farfetched."

Terrador growled irritably, not at Cyril, but at the situation. "This does not bode well…"

Suddenly, the door behind the two swung open once again. A yellow dragon entered the room this time. It was none other than Volteer. "Terrador!" he said, sounding urgent.

"What's the matter Volteer?" asked Terrador. "Did you locate Spyro or Cynder?"

"Unfortunately no. But you must come out and help! During my excursion, I ran into a group of dragons. I was able to lead them here and I flew ahead to notify you. They are in dire need of help! Many of them are injured and require medical attention! Their leader specifically asked for you! Now come!" Without missing a beat, all three guardians made their way quickly down the halls.

Along the way, they came across a young dragon, about the same age as Spyro, with grey scales all over his body. He had two horns on top of his head, both starting off straight but then curving back, colored white. His eyes were as grey as his scales. He had no ridges running down his back. His tail was a very peculiar piece of work. Just like any other tail, it began at his rump. But, about one third of the way down, it split into two separate, completely operational sections. In other words, he had two tails. Each tail had a razor sharp circle blade on the end. He also had blades on the back of all four legs on the elbow. They were straight, so they didn't bother him when he walked, and deadly sharp. Even though he was a male, he had a rather slender body shape. He was more slender than the average male, yet not as slender as a female.

"Ash!" Terrador called. "Come with me! We'll need all the help we can get!"

"What's going on?" Ash asked as he followed the guardians.

"There's a group of injured dragons outside and we need to help them!" Without further question,Ash joined them and the group exited the temple and met up with the group outside.

As they approached the leader of the group looked up and smiled. "Terrador," he said, "It's good… to see you again."

The earth guardian gasped when he saw and recognized who it was. "B-Brock? Is that you?!" Terrador could not believe what his eyes were seeing. Brock was covered with severe burns and bruises. His tail was bent in ways it wasn't meant to. He obviously had trouble walking because he was being supported by his mate Brizzette, who wasn't doing too well either. Her right wing was broken in multiple places and she avoided placing any weight on her left hind-leg whenever possible. "By the ancestors! What happened to you brother?!"

"Brother?!" both Cyril and Volteer said simultaneously.

Brock chuckled at Terrador, "Come now… is that… anyway to greet… your older brother?" The silver dragon tried to stand on his own, but the pain was too much, causing him to grimace and fall back on Brizzette's side.

Terrador then glanced at the rest of the group. There were only a few dragons, most of them young ones, but all were hurt one way or another. Some had burns, others had bruises, cuts or broken bones. He then looked back at his fellow guardians and Ash, "Quickly! Let's get them all into the temple!" Without hesitation, Cyril, Volteer, and Ash aided the dragons in pain and led them all into the temple.

- - - - - - - -

After a couple of hours, every dragon that had arrived at the temple was placed in a room with a comfortable bed and had their injuries bandaged up. Ash was going around, checking in on each dragon, making sure that they were comfortable and that they had taken their medicine. Every now and then he would have to replace a bandage for them. He came up to the last room he had to check up on and knocked on the door. "May I come in?" he asked.

"Sure," replied the voice of a dragoness. Ash opened the door and saw a yellow dragoness sitting on the bed, examining her bandaged paw. It was broken in a few places but other than that, she was fine, save a few minor cuts and bruises. "Oh, hi Ash," she said, seeing the grey dragon coming towards her. She seemed to have something on her mind though.

"Hey Shelly. How's that paw doing? Feeling any better?"

"A bit I guess…"

"Are you okay? You seem… distracted."

"I'm just so worried about Relisan. He didn't come with us. I haven't seen him since he went on guard duty. I'm afraid! I mean, what if he's hurt?! What if he's dieing out there begging for help?! What if…?!" Her voice was becoming frantic and afraid.

"Shhh…" Ash hissed softly, "easy, now. Stressing out won't help your wounds heal." He got on the bed and sat next to her. "Would you like a massage? A body at ease allows for a mind at ease, I always say." Shelly smiled at the kind offer and nodded, her muscles felt very stiff. Ash shifted himself behind her and placed his paws on her shoulders, where he began to relax her muscles.

The dragoness moaned softly and closed her eyes as her muscles seemed to melt under his paws. "Ohhh… wow Ash, have you done this before?"

"Yeah, plenty of times," he replied as he worked his way down her back. "Now, let your mind relax just like your body. Don't worry about a thing. Everything will be better once I'm done here."

His last comment snapped Shelly's eyes open. She became angry and quickly moved away from him. "Don't touch me!" she said.

Ash was surprised at her sudden actions and stared at her, bewildered. "What's wrong?" he asked calmly.

"Oh don't act all innocent! I know what you were trying to do! You were trying to have your way with me weren't you?!"

"What?! No! I swear to the ancestors I wasn't!"

"Sure you weren't!"

"I wasn't! I don't find you attractive that way!"

"So now you're saying I'm ugly?!"

"No! It's just that…" he stopped himself for a moment. He didn't want to tell her his secret, but saw no other way out. He took a deep breath, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Oh a secret now huh? Lemme guess, you're gay!" she said in a mocking tone, not buying what he was saying. What she said hit Ash like a boulder and he looked away from her, not wanting her to see his hurt face. Shelly's anger slowly faded away as she realized what she had done. Her face turned into one of self-shame. "You… you are gay… aren't you?" Ash's silent response was all she needed to confirm it. "Ash I'm so sorry. I…"

"I should go…" he said, cutting her off. "You need your rest." He jumped off of the bed and exited the room in silence, his two tails dragging behind him. Shelly hung her head in shame and lay down for he night.

- - - - - - - -

The next morning, Shelly woke up and got off of her bed. Her broken paw felt much better than the night before, but that didn't help the way she felt about herself. She was still so ashamed of how she ridiculed Ash. She hoped that she could find him and apologize for her actions. She left her room and began to walk down the halls, being careful not to put too much weight on her paw.

Luck was on her side because, as she continued to explore the halls, she rounded a corner and nearly bumped into the grey dragon. "Oh Ash! Good morning."

"Good morning Shelly," he said in a rather annoyed voice. "If you'll let me pass, I have errands to run… Unless of course, you want to insult me some more!" Shelly looked down on the ground, her shame mounting. Ash huffed and began to walk past her, "I should have known you wouldn't have accepted me… just like everyone else…"

"Now hold on there!" Shelly said, grabbing his right tail. "I never said that I didn't accept you. Look, last night, what I said was terrible and I'm really sorry I said it. Had I known that you really were gay, I wouldn't have even thought of saying that. If you'll give me a chance and accept my apology, I'd like to be your friend."

Ash was taken aback by this. Never before in his life had anyone known about his secret and still want to be friends with him. "M-my friend? You're not joking about this are you?"

"Of course not. Like I said, what I said last night was a mistake. I misjudged you… horribly… I thought you only wanted to have your way with me but all you wanted to do was to help me heal…"

Ash was silent for several moments. He then smiled and said, "Shelly, I accept your apology, and yes, I'd like it if we were friends." He wrapped his wings around her for a friendly hug and she returned it. After they broke their embrace, Ash asked, "So, you wanna go grab some breakfast?"

"Sure"

- - - - - - - -

**And there ya go! Yes, I added another OC. I've actually had him in my mind for a very long time… since I was about maybe half way done with my first story… and I finally found a place for him!**

**Anyways, this chapter was meant to show what was going on with everyone else. Hope you liked it!**

**The next chapter will be focused on this group as well. More about Ash and his past will be revealed!**

**Till next time!**


	9. Past Revealed

**Well guys, the time I hoped wouldn't come has arrived… Classes start back up after this weekend so I won't be able to update as often as you or I would like… I'll do my best to update as quickly as I can but I make no promises…**

**Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

- - - - - - - -

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 8: Past Revealed

Shelly and Ash entered the mess hall to grab their breakfast and to quiet down their rumbling stomachs. As soon as they walked through the doors, the smell of fresh eggs entered their nostrils and the sound of sizzling bacon assaulted their ears. They both grabbed a tray and began to pile them high with their favorite foods. Once they were satisfied, they took a seat and began eating.

"It feels like it's been ages since I've eaten a good meal!" Shelly said, stuffing her face with some eggs. Ash chuckled and began to eat his own food. The two ate in silence for several minutes until Ash decided to break it.

"So, tell me about yourself Shelly," Ash said. "I'd like to get to know more about my first friend."

"Well…" She began to tell him everything about her… everything that wasn't too personal anyways. She told him about some of the adventures she had, about her life growing up, and how she met Relisan. "He looked so cute and yet so fierce, I couldn't look away from him. I finally gathered up my courage one day and went up to meet him. Before either of us know it, we're going out and having such a great time together."

"Sounds like your love for him is deep," the grey dragon commented.

"It is… that's why I'm so worried about him…"

"Well the way you described him, he seems to be a very strong dragon, both in body and in will. You have every right to worry, but I'm more than certain he'll be fine."

Shelly looked at the grey dragon's soft and caring face and smiled. "Thanks, that makes me feel better." She picked up her last strip of crispy bacon and practically swallowed it whole. "So, what about you Ash, what's your story?"

Ash sighed and played with his remaining food for a moment. "I wish I could tell you that it's a nice story like yours, but then I'd be lying…" He took a deep breath and began his tale.

- - - - - - - -

_It all began right when I hatched from my egg. From that moment, my parents knew that I'd be different, mostly because I was born with two tails instead of just one like everyone else. They did their best to tell me that my two tails make me unique, but back then, everyone always picked on me and called me names._

A young Ash, no more than six years of age, was running down the path to his home. He had tears running down his face as the voices of those who did not accept him, both young and old, echoed in his mind. "Hey look! It's the freak of nature!" "You're not welcomed here two-tail!" "You don't belong here!" And so on.

As he continued to run home, he ran into a group of three dragons, all of them older than him. "Well, well, well. If it isn't two-tail," said the oldest dragon, obviously the leader of the group.

Ash backed away from them and they approached him. "I-I don't w-want any tro-trouble," he said between sobs and out of fear.

"Awww, the little freak doesn't want trouble. Well that's such a shame, because it looks like you found it! Get him guys!" All three dragons lunged for him. Ash tried to run away but one of them grabbed his right tail and pulled him back. The gang began to beat up the poor, defenseless dragon, leave multiple bruises and some open wounds.

After ten grueling minutes, the gang finally decided that they had had enough and just left him there to die. Ash just lay there, motionless and crying harder than ever, his body covered with large bruises and his own blood. "W-why do they hate me?" he asked himself. "I didn't ask for this… I don't want this!"

_This sort of treatment continued throughout the rest of my life, even during the war against Malefor! I would try to help a fellow villager but they'd push me away saying that they didn't want a freak's help! I've even tried cutting off one of my tails one more than one occasion… I was once so desperate, so depressed that I nearly took my own life. I'm not sure what stopped me, but I never actually went through with any of it._

_It seemed that the only one's who accepted me were my parents… but that didn't last long either…_

Ash was now fifteen years old. The war against Malefor was won only two years before. As he grew up, Ash has learned how to better avoid any confrontations if he ever had to leave his home. He knew where most of the troublemakers hung out and would try to sneak by them. However, he wasn't always so lucky. They would sometimes see him and try to attack him. When this happened, he would run away from them as fast as he could, which was actually quite fast, thanks to his slenderer-than-average form.

One thing that he noticed about himself as he grew up was that, whenever he would have to leave his home, he would sometimes check out the male dragons instead of the female dragons. He tried to stop doing this on more than one occasion, forcing himself to stare at the females, but he never found them as attractive as he did the males. This confused him very much. He was a male; he knew that for sure, so why did he find other males so pleasing to look at?

After many months of arguing with himself, he finally came to the conclusion: he was gay. He knew he had to tell his parents about this, but when he did, their reaction was completely unexpected…

_When I finally told them, they didn't believe me at first. When they realized I was actually being serious about this they… they didn't accept me anymore. My father began to yell at me and mother could only stare at me with a mixture of disappointment, disgust, and hurt on her face. They allowed me to stay, they weren't cruel and didn't kick me out… but they may as well have. After I told them, we didn't talk anymore and we would get into arguments far more often than before, mostly between my father and me. After another four months, I couldn't take it anymore, so I packed up some things and ran away. Funny thing is, I left on my birthday, so I guess you can say it was my gift of freedom to myself. _

_After two weeks of traveling, I arrived here at the temple, where I've lived for nearly two months now._

- - - - - - - -

"And that's my story," Ash concluded. Shelly remained quite throughout the entire story. She felt so sorry for Ash and what he had to go through.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly. "No dragon should ever have to go through what you went through, especially one as kind as you."

"Thanks."

"Do he guardians know about this?"

"No. I told them my secret but that's all. Surprisingly, it didn't faze them in the least. They accepted me and helped me move in here, saying that this will always be my home. You can't imagine how happy I felt that there was a place where I could belong. And now, I've made a friend that's my age! One who I could talk to! This feeling is just so… incredible!"

Shelly smiled at her new friend. "Well I'm glad we're friends too Ash. And you of all dragons really deserve to be happy."

Ash returned her smile and finished off his plate of food. "Of course, I agreed to help them out around the temple, mostly with the injured or sick dragons since they were a little short-handed. Speaking of which, I need to check up on your friends. Would you like to join me?"

"I'd be happy to."

- - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, far away from the temple, a small group of five dragons lay asleep in a musty, dungeon cell. All was quite until… "Wake up you low-life dragons!!!" a loud voice boomed and echoed throughout the cell. Needless to say, this woke all five dragons up with a scare.

"Great! Now my ears are gonna bleed!" Relisan said sarcastically.

"Oh do shut up," said the voice again, it was Ripto's. Suddenly, something fell onto the floor in their cell with a large thump. It was a dead deer.

"Now eat up and get ready! Round two will begin shortly!"

- - - - - - - -

**Okay, I know there really wasn't much to this chapter, but hey, I felt like typing up Ash's past so I did. In the next chapter, the focus will once again be on Relisan and his group. What sort of 'game' does Ripto have planned this time? Only one way to find out! **

**And as I said before, school is starting back up so my updates will most likely be delayed. I'll do my best to fit in some time for typing, but for some reason I feel like my classes are gonna keep me really busy this semester…**

**Till next time!**


	10. Fear Factor

**As expected, this chapter is late… *dodges a rotten tomato from a random person***

**HEY! Don't throw rotten food at me! School comes first!**

**Well, anyways, here's chapter 9!**

**Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

- - - - - - - -

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 9: Fear Factor

Spyro, Cynder, Relisan, Glaisha, and Zakroz all sat around the dead deer that was given to them for breakfast. Spyro had cooked the meat with his flame breath. As they ate their meal, they were deep in discussion.

"Whoever this guy is, he's got an understanding of magic that I've never seen before." Spyro said.

"What do you mean?" asked Relisan.

"Didn't you notice the small cubes outside yesterday? When I came out into the sunlight, I was standing right in front of one. That means that the cube _was_ the maze. But how could I, or any of us for that matter, fit into such a tiny place? My guess is that he shrunk us and placed us in there."

"That's a good theory, and it makes sense. Plus, notice how he was able to put up a barrier all around this huge place. That must mean that not only can he use magic in ways we haven't seen, but he's powerful as well." Said Relisan. Every other dragon nodded in agreement. "Two questions remain unanswered: where is he getting this power from, and how do we stop him?"

The purple dragon sighed. "I don't know. I've never faced an enemy like this before. I think the best thing we can do now is go along with his 'games' and hope for the best."

"I don't like the sound of that, but we've little choice for now." Relisan plopped the last piece of his share into his mouth and swallowed. "Everyone ready."

"Ready." Glaisha responded.

"Same here." Said Zakroz.

"Us too." Cynder said, licking her lips clean and standing next to Spyro.

"Good to hear." Ripto's voice suddenly echoed in their cell. Just like before, the five friends disappeared and reappeared in a different area. This time though, they were standing in the open area of the coliseum. "So I take it that means you are ready for the next game?" The riptoc had the same attire as the day before, holding his scepter in one hand.

The purple dragon looked up at his adversary with a stern and determined look. "Yes we-"

"Not so fast," Relisan interrupted. "We have a couple of questions to ask you first."

"Brother! What are you doing?!" Glaisha hissed at him. The red dragon ignored her and continued to stare at the riptoc.

After a tense moment, Ripto sighed. "Fine. What is it?"

Relisan smirked and asked his questions. "First of all, what's your name? You never told us before. And second, how are you using such powerful magic?"

Ripto remained silent for a moment. He wondered why the dragon would ask such a question, but he figured that he would be no threat to him. "My name is Ripto, and as I said before, I'm the last of the riptocs and-"

"Whoa, wait a minute. You're a riptoc that's named Ripto?" Zakroz interrupted. "That seems very unoriginal if you ask me."

"Silence!" Ripto growled. With a wave of his free hand, he cast a spell over Zakroz, causing him to temporarily lose his voice. "You will show me the respect I deserve and not talk while I'm speaking!" The brown dragon growled and mouthed something to him, but Ripto didn't notice nor did he care. "Continuing where I left off, my powers were learned. Long story short, your ancestors were allies with the riptocs and we taught each other our ways. We helped them learn hand-to-hand combat while they taught us magic, like so!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a visible black wind began to surround his scepter, swirling around it. With a thrust of his scepter, the black wind flew down towards the dragons and completely engulfed them. The five braced themselves for the attack, but the pain they expected did not come. Instead, the wind continued to whirl around them, howling loudly. Finally, after several minutes, the wind changed its course of action. It divided itself into five equal sections and whirled around in tight balls, one in front of each dragon. Slowly, the wind began to slow down and take a physical form.

The dragons' eyes widened when they began to recognize what was forming in front of them.

In front of Glaisha stood a gigantic spider.

Zakroz had a massive serpent staring him down.

Relisan was dumbstruck when an evil and dark form of him stood before him.

Cynder's eyes were wide as saucers as her past, evil, adult self stared her down.

Spyro's legs almost gave out on him as Malefor grinned wickedly at him.

These were their greatest fears!

"For game number two, you must overcome your fears!" Ripto announced. "But, you wont just have to face them head on to overcome them, you'll have to fight them in order to win! And… begin!" The fights almost immediately started, with the fears lunging for the scared dragons. Ripto took his seat and watched each fight carefully. "There's no way they'll be able to win," he cackled to himself.

Down below, the dragons were doing their best to fight off their fears, but they were failing miserably. Every time they would try to attack, they were blocked or dodged and were immediately countered. They couldn't concentrate; their fear of their enemy was clouding their minds.

Relisan tumbled on he ground, having been countered for the umpteenth time. "Hold still damn it!" he roared.

"Make me," replied his fear. The dark being side stepped as the real Relisan tried to lunge at him again. "Is that the best you've got? Ha! Paralyze!" He focused in on the red dragon and his eyes flashed yellow for a split second. Relisan was suddenly stunned for a second and unable to move. Reacting quickly the evil Relisan jumped on top of him and pinned him to the ground.

As they fought, Glaisha dodged another ball of sickly poison that the spider had spit. She had already acquired multiple cuts and bruises, blood staining her beautiful baby blue scales with crimson. She tried to not show her fear, but anyone with eyes could see it easily. She fired an ice spike towards her opponent's head but the spider simply swatted it away with one of its hairy legs.

"Wh-why won't you go down already?!" the ice dragoness roared with a shaky voice. She jumped into the air and flapped her wings hard to avoid being hit once again by one of the spider's legs as it swept under her. However she failed to notice another leg rise up and crash down on her, forcing her back to the ground on her belly, hard. When she hit, her eyes grew wide in pain. She tried to scream, but it was muffled as blood began building up in her mouth. She chocked on it and coughed it out before her world went black.

Relisan heard the thud as he tried to knock his opponent off of him. He snapped his head to the left and his mouth fell open at what he saw. His little sister was being crushed underneath the spider's giant leg. She was bleeding from her injuries and her mouth. The ice dragoness was not moving. The spider then lifted its leg off of the limp dragoness and used it to swat her on the side, sending her crashing into the wall, leaving behind a huge, cracked dent.

Seeing this caused the red dragon to snap. The anger within him boiled up, his pupils became slits, his face contorted into one of pure rage, and he let out a powerful roar. "GET OFF OF ME!!" he bellowed as he used his legs to throw his enemy off. Evil Relisan tumbled head over heels on the floor. The real Relisan got to his paws and charged at the spider. He swung his tail-axe towards it and cut off the leg it had used to attack his sister. The spider hissed loudly in pain. It launched several globs of poison towards the red dragon, but he avoided them easily by propelling himself into the air with a powerful flap of his wings. He came face to face with the spider and slashed its eyes with such fury, it would have normally frightened himself, but now the red dragon did not care. The spider was spilling blood from all of its open wounds. The blood dripped onto the floor, creating a large pool of it. The spider was struggling to stay afoot at this point and with one final hit on top of the head from Relisan's tail-axe, it fell on the floor.

The spider lay there for a moment in a puddle of its blood. It began to try to pick itself up, struggling even to get one of its legs up. "I don't think so!" roared Relisan. "Agony!" His eyes flashed green for a second as he focused his curse on the spider. Suddenly, the monstrous creature began to twitch as unimaginable pain coursed through its body. After only a few seconds, the spider stopped moving completely. It was dead.

With his target now taken care of, the red dragon rushed to get to his sister's battered body. However, before he could reach her, something slammed into his side, sending him sliding on the rough ground as he roared in pain. Relisan looked back to see his evil self slowly coming towards him.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, such a shame," said the evil being, "It's always the ones that you care for most that die first isn't it? I wonder if Shelly will be next to go." Relisan's eyes flared with anger as he got up and lunged at his fear. The evil Relisan simply laughed and sidestepped the attack, sticking his tail out to trip his attacker. "Such a fool. Do you really believe that you can defeat me?"

Relisan fell face first into the ground with a grunt. As he got back up, he caught sight of his three other friends fighting with everything they had. He then looked at the dead body of the spider. His eyes widened as he came to a realization and a smiled formed on his muzzle. "Maybe you're right," he said as he dusted himself off, "maybe I can't beat you… but THEY can!" He ran towards his companions. "Guys!" he called out, catching the attention of his friends and their fears. He leapt into the air and pumped his wings hard once, launching himself like a missile and ramming himself right into the serpent that Zakroz was fighting. The serpent hissed in pain and fell to the ground. Relisan took advantage of this and said, "Switch enemies! We can't beat our own personal fears but we can beat our friends' fears!"

Cynder, Spyro, and Zakroz all looked at each other. With a stern nod, they each switched their focus to differing targets.

Now, Relisan faced the serpent, Cynder prepared herself for Evil Relisan, Spyro stared down Dark Cynder, and Zakroz eyed Malefor.

"What's this?" Ripto asked himself, watching the fight from his seat.

"Looks like things are going to get interesting."

- - - - - - - -

**Another cliffhanger! I find it strange how I used to hate these until I started using them!**

**Anyways, this chapter would have been longer but it would have been extremely long… plus I felt you guys have waited long enough for an update so… :-)**

**Till next time! (Whenever that will be…)**


	11. Fear Factor Round Two

**I'm terribly sorry for being so late on my update of this story! I was on Spring break so… yeah… wasn't at home too often… But here it is! Also, I have something to say at the end AN… and no, I'm not leaving… it's just something I feel I need to make clear…**

**So without further ado: Enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

- - - - - - - -

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 10: Fear Factor: Round Two

The fallen serpent rolled itself back onto its belly and raised its head. After shaking off the spots that floated in his eyes, he locked his angry glare on Relisan. "Sssooo," the snaked hissed, "you think that you can beat me do you?"

Relisan looked up at his new target with a cocky smile, "That's right," he said.

The serpent hissed in a laughing manner. "That over-confidence shall be your downfall. But no matter, you will ssstill lose. I'm actually glad I get to eat you instead, you look much… tassstier than your brown friend!" Instantly, the snake used his lightning reflexes to lunge at the red dragon with fangs ready to puncture his scales. Relisan's eyes widened and he jumped out of the way, landing on his paws and sliding sideways a bit. He did not escape without injury however. His enemy's giant fangs left two rather deep gashes on his side. The wounds burned but he had to maintain his focus. Blood was already flowing from them and he was gasping for air.

_Not good,_ he thought to himself, _I have to end this fast._ He took a good look at his enemy as he got up from his failed attack. The red dragon saw that the serpent's eyes were not slit, but rather they were round. He also took note that it had brown scales of varying intensity, from light to dark brown. Relisan began to think to himself. _Those eyes, the color of his scales. He must be a python! I'm sure of it! And that means-_ His thoughts were cut short as his foe hissed loudly and launched another attack. Relisan was ready for this one and dodged it completely, though barely. _He's not venomous!_ He finished his thoughts.

The two reptiles continued to fight one another. Relisan would try to attack but every time he did, the serpent would take advantage of his own speed and either bash the red dragon away with his head or swat him like a bug with his powerful tail. All the while, Relisan was formulating a plan. He knew that most of his already limited abilities wouldn't be too effective. On top of that, he couldn't concentrate long enough to use his curses because his enemy would launch one attack after the other in rapid succession. But finally, he was able to come up with an idea. _This is going to hurt… a lot…_ Relisan said to himself. He rolled away from yet another attack and waited for the next one.

"Hold sssstill damn it!" the python hissed angrily. Once again, he lunged towards the dragon. This time however, he actually hit his target, biting down hard on Relisan, taking half of his body in its mouth, and wrapping the rest of his body around the remainder, squeezing the life out of him.

Relisan felt the python's fangs plunge deep into his rump area. He stifled a scream as he closed his eyes. He knew that this would be his best bet to have the time needed to concentrate and use one of his abilities. His body was being squeezed tightly, slowly draining his life away. He did his best to pay no mind to the pain he felt. After what seemed like years, he was finally able to use his curse.

"Paralyze!" he said loudly. The curse quickly surged through the snake's body and completely stunned it for a few precious seconds. This was all the time Relisan needed. He felt the squeeze on his body loosen up and he quickly hacked away at the serpent's scales with his hind claws. At the same time, he used his front claws to slash and tear open the flesh on the inside of the snake's mouth. Blood began to flow and fill up his enemy's lungs.

When the python regained his feeling, his eyes widened as the pain crashed on him like a ton of bricks. He could feel his dinner continue to claw on his insides. He couldn't help but let out a horrible, gurgled scream of agony, releasing Relisan in the process.

The red dragon was now covered in the snake's blood, but he didn't care. With his enemy now distracted, he swung his razor sharp tail-axe at him, cutting the serpent's head clean off. The head fell to the ground while the body twitched and jerked for several more minutes until it stopped all together. Both body and head then vanished in a puff of black smoke.

"Told you I'd… beat you…" Relisan said, exhausted. His legs suddenly gave out on him and he fell to the floor. He was beginning to feel the full effect of his serious wounds as his adrenaline began to wear off. His vision was becoming blurry as he tried to get back up. All he could do however was lift his head up a little and look towards the broken wall where the mangled body of his sister lay. Only one word escaped his maw as he slipped into unconsciousness, "Glaisha…"

- - - - - - - -

Cynder and Evil Relisan circled each other, both staring with fierce eyes.

After a few tense moments, the dark dragon spoke up, "You sure you want to fight me Cynder?" he asked.

"That's a stupid question!" Cynder retorted. "Of course I'm sure!"

The dragon let out a disappointed sigh when he heard that. "Such a shame…"

"What is?"

"It's a shame that I'm going to have to hurt you… a flawless and beautiful gem of a dragoness… oh well."

Cynder only laughed at him, "Trust me buddy," she said, "you wont be able to get even one scratch on me."

"Is that so?" asked the evil dragon rhetorically. He dashed towards Cynder as fast as he could, intending to slash her with his claws. The black dragoness saw this coming and used her Cloak of Shadows to disappear from sight and cause Evil Relisan to slash only the air. "What in the?! Where did you go?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Cynder's voice seemed to echo all around him. "Well, if you must know…" She suddenly burst from the shadows underneath her opponent, knocking him up into the air. She quickly jumped up after him and latched her front claws on his shoulders tightly, enough to draw blood. Before he could react, she bit down hard on his neck, causing him to roar in pain. With her target currently immobilized by her vice-grip, she used her powerful hind legs to claw away at his belly, ripping off both scales and flesh. After a moment, she finally stopped her attack and ended it by diving towards the ground and slamming the evil red dragon into it. Evil Relisan's eyes and mouth were wide open with shock as the air in his lungs escaped him. The black dragoness jumped off of him and smiled, satisfied that she had taken him down so quickly. "All talk and no bite. That was way too easy."

As she turned away from the lifeless body, she suddenly felt a sharp pain on her left shoulder. She yelped and held it tightly with her paw, trying to numb the pain a bit. When she pulled her paw back, her eyes widened. It was covered in blood… her blood! "But how?" she asked out loud. She turned around and gasped at what she saw. The dragon she had just beaten down was back on his feet. If that wasn't enough to freak her out, he had no visible injuries on any part of his body.

"I must admit," spoke the evil dragon, turning his head to crack his neck, "that was an impressive onslaught you unleashed there. But did you honestly believe it would be that simple?"

_I kinda hoped so…_ Cynder thought to herself. She couldn't figure out how it was possible that this manifestation of Relisan's fear was still standing before her. She had dealt some major damage to him, but no evidence of that appeared on him. She continued to rack her brain, trying to think of a logical explanation. Finally, she remembered what Relisan had told her and Spyro when they first met. "This isn't real! This is your Curse of Illusion isn't it?"

"You catch on pretty quick. Yes, this is an illusion. My curse however is much more powerful than that pathetic excuse of a red dragon's is. While he can only make illusions to trick you…" Evil Relisan paused as he walked up to Cynder. The black dragoness took a defensive stance, ready for his attack. However, instead of a frontal attack, the dragon disappeared, astonishing Cynder and causing her to let her guard down for a second. The next thing she knew, she was rammed on her side and she was sent rolling on the ground. "… My illusions can actually attack you!" He finished reappearing in front of her.

Cynder growled in agitation. How was she supposed to beat this guy if she couldn't see the real one that was creating this illusion? She jumped back away from him and landed on her paws. Immediately she let out a Siren Screech, knowing that it wouldn't affect the illusion, but hoping the red sound wave would hit the real one. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side as she Evil Relisan's axe cut deep into her back. She roared from the sudden pain but maintained her ground. "That attack was so far off it wasn't even funny," he said. He then lunged at her, trying to, once again, catch her off guard.

Acting on instinct, Cynder used her Cloak of Shadows to dodge any sort of attack that he was planning. While melded with the shadows, she was able to see every other shadow and dark area around her. Cracks on the ground, the shadows her friends made as they fought, the darkness of the tunnels that led to the cells, all of them giving her a way out of the shadows and back to the physical realm. As she looked around for the best place to reappear, she noticed something in the corner of her eye. When she fully turned to see what it was, she saw another shadow, this one in the shape of a dragon. Only, this dragon's shadow was holding perfectly still, as if concentrating on something. Almost instantly, she knew who it was and she scolded herself for not thinking about this beforehand.

Back above, Evil Relisan waited impatiently for the black dragoness to reappear. "Hiding isn't going to do you any good!" he said loudly. "Hurry up and show yourself!"

"With pleasure!" the dragoness's voice seemed to echo from beneath him. Cynder jumped out of the shadows and hit the real dragon hard in his gut, causing him to lose concentration, breaking the illusion instantly. "This time when I take you down," she said loudly as she flew above the helpless drake, "stay down!" She curved her body downward and flapped her wings hard. She rammed herself into Evil Relisan's back and sent both him and herself hurdling towards the ground. They crashed hard, raising a cloud of dust and dirt. Cynder didn't waste any time. She held her opponent down and clamped her jaws hard around his neck, squeezing tighter and tighter. The evil dragon let out a gurgled roar and he struggled to knock her off, but it was no use. Cynder continued to put more force into her bite until finally a loud and sickening snap was heard. Evil Relisan instantly became quiet; his body becoming limp. She released her hold on him and his body became mist in the air, mixing with the dust cloud.

Cynder's injuries were beginning to affect her, but now was not the time to relax. She struggled just to stay on her paws, but was managing it. Using her wind powers, she cleared blew away the dust that obscured her vision, just in time to see Spyro fly right past her, only inches away from her beak-like snout. The purple dragon crashed hard into the wall and fell to the ground on his belly, completely motionless. "Spyro!" Cynder yelled, the fear of losing her mate gripping her heart. She moved as fast as she could towards him but she ran right into an invisible wall.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Ripto spoke up from his throne up above, "No helping your allies!"

- - - - - - - -

**Sorry I cut it here… It's just… I ran into a giant wall called Writer's Block… and by the way I'm feeling, it looks like I may even have to abandon this story… I'm running out of ideas and to be honest, it's becoming very tedious… I don't have that same sense of enjoyment any more that I used to get while writing my other stories… I'm very sorry to announce that but that's the reality of things…**

**Another thing I wanted to mention was that a couple weeks ago I got an angry PM (from whom will remain undisclosed). Basically, this person was asking me (in a rather rude way) to update one of my story: "TLoS: Soul Savior" since I haven't updated it in over a year. I want to make clear that asking me to update a story, especially rudely, will NOT in ANY way make me update it. I'll only update it when I feel like it. Is that clear?**

**Well… let's see what the future has in store for this story and me… Any help will be gladly welcomed.**

**Till next time!**


	12. Fear Factor Round Two Cont

**I am, once again, terribly sorry for being so late on my update! Exams were taking place so I had to study, study, and um… oh yea! Study some more…**

**On the bright side, Summer Break is here for me! So with any luck, I should be able to update once a week! Maybe more!**

**But anyways, here's the long overdue conclusion to the previous chapter! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 11: Fear Factor: Round Two (Continued)

Spyro jumped into the air to avoid a powerful slash from evil Cynder's claws. He used his wings to maintain his balance and hover above her. The black dragoness looked up at him and roared as a ball of black fire erupted from her maw and hurdled straight towards the purple dragon. However, Spyro was able to dodge the attack by propelling himself to the left with a strong flap.

"I'm impressed!" the dark form of Cynder said in a dark, twisted voice, "I don't remember you dodging so much last time we met!"

"And I don't remember you being so slow!" Spyro taunted. He pumped his wings hard one last time and dove towards his adversary, keeping his wings closed tightly on his body. As he drew closer to her, he formed his shield of earth around himself, hoping to finish her off quickly with it. Dark Cynder just stood there, not even attempting to move a muscle. At the last possible second, when Spyro was only mere inches away from making contact with her, she vanished, merging herself with the shadows.

Spyro slammed into the ground with incredible force. Luckily, the earth that surrounded him took all of the damage that was meant for him. He took down his shield and landed safely on the ground. He looked around himself, expecting to see a mangled body, but all he saw was the shattered ground beneath his paws.

"What the…? Where did she go?" he pondered out loud.

"You want to know where I am?" a voice suddenly echoed around him, it belonged to Dark Cynder. She laughed evilly as she circled around him, still invisible to him, like a predator about to strike.

Spyro continued to look all around him, trying to catch his enemy before she could launch a surprise attack. No matter how much he looked, he could not find even a single black scale. That's when he realized what was really going on.

"Shadow!" he said out loud. It was too little too late for him to notice this, for at that moment, Dark Cynder burst forth from the shadows that concealed her and knocked the purple dragon up into the air. He struggled to regain his balance, but the black smoke had surrounded him and immobilized him, keeping him afloat in the air.

The dark dragoness looked up at him with a wicked grin on her muzzle. "The last time you and I battled," she began, "I restrained myself from using my full power. I never imagined that a whelp like you could ever best me. This time," she leapt into the air and came face-to-face with him, "I wont be so merciful!" She performed a quick front flip and brought her tail down hard on Spyro's torso. The purple dragon's eyes went wide from shock as the wind was forced out of him. Her tail pushed him down to the ground, causing injury to his back and even more to his front. Blood spurt forth from Spyro's throat as the impact crushed his ribs and damaged his lungs. Once her assault was finished, Dark Cynder landed a few yards away from the purple mess, wanting to see if she's be able to play with him a little longer.

Spyro groaned as the pain rushed through he body. He slowly rolled himself over and began to pick himself up, his eyes closed shut as the strain caused him more pain. Once he was up and steady, he turned his head to the evil dragoness. He coughed once, causing more of his blood to spill out of his mouth. He was horribly injured and he knew it, while she barely had a scratch on her hide. _This is bad,_ he thought to himself. _I… I have to end this… now!_

There was only one way that he knew would ensure a quick victory. He had to use Convexity. But, using such a powerful attack would cause powerful recoil, which in his current state would cause him even more damage and possibly death. He knew the risk but he would rather die fighting with everything he had to protect the ones he loved than die without giving it his all. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He could feel the power building within him, slowly becoming stronger.

Evil Cynder saw this and scoffed at him. "Do you honestly believe I'll give you the time you need to use that?!" She launched a large and very potent glob of poison at him. If it were to make contact with his scales they would dissolve faster than he would be able to react. As the gap between Spyro and the poison grew smaller, the convexital energy around him reacted to the threat and created a shield in front of the purple dragon. The poison splashed onto the shield with great force. However, it did not cause any damage. It merely slid off the shield like water. On the other side of it, Spyro remained completely unharmed. Evil Cynder's eyes widened in surprise.

Spyro looked up at her, his eyes glowing with purple energy. "Did you really believe that I'd let you win that easily?" he said, his voice warped by the energy around him. "Now die!" he roared as he fired a beam of convexity towards her. The evil dragoness retaliated by letting loose a stream of black fire to try to ward off the attack. But all that did was delay the inevitable slightly. In a matter of seconds, the power of convexity had overtaken her. She let out an agonized scream as the energy ripped her to shreds.

As the energy finally died down, the body of the evil dragoness became a black smoke and vanished into thin air. Spyro stood there with a smile on his face. It wasn't long however before the negative effects of his attack caught up to him. He began coughing hard, spilling more blood each time. It became incredibly hard for him to breath. His lungs were being filled with blood and he was drowning in it. He lost his footing and fell hard unto the floor, the world around him quickly fading. After several more coughs, he finally stopped moving as unconsciousness took over.

Zakroz and the manifestation of Malefor were staring each other down, neither of them so much as blinking. Although he was as still as a statue, the brown dragon's mind was racing, forming a plan.

_Let's see,_ he thought, _he may not be the real Dark Master, but I'm sure he's still very powerful. Plus, he's much larger than I am. That may give me an advantage… but to be certain, I have to get him off of his guard. Question is… how?_

As he pondered any possibilities, Malefor took the initiative and swung his massive paw at the brown dragon. The attack did not make contact however as Zakroz jumped back, barely avoiding being smacked. "Hold still you little insect!" roared the Dark Master.

_Interesting,_ said the brown dragon to himself, _he's seems pretty angered after I dodged that one attack. That's how I'll beat him! With his own rage!_ He looked up at his adversary with a sly smile on his muzzle. "Was that all you got big boy?" he said. Malefor growled in response and used his other paw to attack Zakroz once again only to end up having the same results. Zakroz shook his head as if he were disappointed. "Oh come on! Even a day-old hatchling could have dodged that one!"

This process continued for quite some time. Malefor would attack and Zakroz would dodge followed by a taunt. Each time this happened, the evil dragon grew more enraged and reckless. There were a few close calls, especially when Malefor began to use his breath attacks, but Zakroz was still standing.

"Try to attack me again! Come on! I dare you!" taunted the brown dragon. Malefor, being in a state of uncontrollable rage, fell for it and stepped forward to try to chomp at the smaller dragon. He took one step forward, then another, until finally, his right hind-leg step in something thick and wet. "Gotcha!" The ground seemed to come to life as mud quickly wrapped around Malefor's paw and hardened, trapping him there.

The large purple dragon tried to break free, but every time cracks appeared on the hardened mud, a new layer was quickly added to reinforce it. "What the hell is this?! What did you do?!" he bellowed.

Zakroz chuckled. "Simple really. You were so enraged, so focused on only trying to kill me that you didn't notice what I was doing. Every time I evaded your attacks, I fired mud bombs all over the place. It was just a matter of time before you stepped in one. Now beating you will be much easier." He quickly fired three more mud bombs to trap Malefor's three remaining paws.

The Dark Master struggled to break free from his muddy imprisonment, but it was no use. "It seems you planned this out rather well," he growled, "I commend you for that. But there is one detail you overlooked." His mouth began to glow with a dark energy as he charged up his breath attack. Once it was ready, he roared loudly and unleashed multiple orbs of darkness. They all homed in on Zakroz's location.

The brown dragon rolled his eyes in annoyance and jumped into the air at the last moment, not giving the orbs the time they needed to veer towards him, causing them to crash into the ground. He flew up to see Malefor eye to eye. "I've already seen that attack several times… and I managed to dodge most of them. Don't think the same attack will work when it hadn't before." Zakroz stared into Malefor's eyes and sighed. "It's a shame though," he continued, "if you were younger… we might have had something. But then again, evil isn't my style!"

With that said, the mud dragon used his razor sharp tail blade to stab Malefor in the head, driving his tail deep into his skull. The mighty dragon gasped as the pain shot through his body, yet no sound emanated from his throat. Slowly, his body began to dissolve into nothing. The battle was over.

Up above on his throne, Ripto looked down in shock and disgust. He couldn't believe that the dragons have won yet another game! On the bright side though, they did lose a team member for the remaining events. _And that means they're one step closer to losing and becoming my slaves,_ he thought.

"Well, I must say that was unexpected," Ripto announced to the two conscious dragons, Cynder and Zakroz. "It seems that all but one of you defeated your enemies. That poor ice dragoness was beaten mercilessly and is therefore eliminated from the remaining games."

"What?!" both Zakroz and Cynder said.

"You know the rules! She didn't finish the game successfully so she's done playing! But fear not, I'll be healing all of your injuries. After all, you are all going to be my future slaves and what good is a dead slave? So be thankful for that!" He began to quietly chant in some other language. When he finished his spell, a healing wave spread itself over the five dragons. Almost immediately their injuries began to heal. Broken bones were realigned and reattached and open wounds closed at an incredible pace.

Then, just like the day before, the dragons were sent back into their cell. In the little light that was given off by the two torches, Zakroz and Cynder looked over themselves. Any sort of injury that they had sustained was now gone, not even a scar was left behind, which Zakroz was thankful for. They then went around and checked on their friends. They also did not have any evidence of wounds on their bodies.

"Looks like he meant what he said," Zakroz spoke up.

"Yeah," Cynder agreed, "I don't feel any pain and it looks like they don't either." She suddenly gave out a long yawn. Today had been a tough day and her body was begging for rest, even though it was still early in the evening. "I'm gonna go to sleep early tonight. I feel like I'll need it for tomorrow…"

"Good idea. I'll go ahead and rest up too." The brown dragon laid down in the corner and wrapped his tail around himself. "Good night Cynder."

"Good night Zakroz." It wasn't long before they were both sound asleep, snoring softly.

**Finally that part of the story is done! It took longer than I expected…**

**Thank you guys so much for being so patient with me! As I said before, updates now should be a lot more frequent (hopefully once a week). There are only about five chapters left in this story so be sure to read them! **

**Till next time!**


	13. Lonely Night

**Nothing much to say here so enjoy! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 12: Lonely Night

As the night was rolling in, Ripto was pacing around thinking in his bedchamber, trying to think of the next game.

"Hmm," he thought out loud, "In the first game, I tested their sense of direction in dark areas. They all did great but I cant trust that red one. He'd get lost too easily. No sense of direction. In the second game, I tested their fighting abilities. They displayed great teamwork by switching enemies like that, but that blue one is obviously the weakest of the bunch. I wouldn't be able to send her against tougher enemies. What should I test next?"

He continued to pace for several more minutes before an idea popped into his head. "Oh how I wish I could do this now! But I need them rested up to get accurate results. After all, good things come to those who wait…"

Meanwhile, down in the dragons' cell, everyone was sleeping peacefully, all except Relisan that is. He had woken up in the middle of the night and he could not return to the world of dreams. His mind was running. He wondered how his wounds were healed, if they were going to make it out of this alright, if the ones he loved were still out there somewhere.

His eyes fell upon the sleeping forms of Spyro and Cynder. Though the torches had gone out and it was dark, his sharp eyes could see them sleeping peacefully together, their chests rising and falling steadily. It was then that he felt a wave of loneliness sweep over him. He wanted to do that, to sleep next to the ones he cherished most, to feel the warmth emanating from their bodies.

The red dragon sighed sadly and laid his head on his paws and closed his eyes, trying to go back to sleep. A single tear fell from his eye and it dripped silently against cold, hard floor beneath him.

Little did Relisan know that, at the Dragon Temple, Shelly was feeling the same way. She missed the red dragon dearly and prayed to the ancestors that he was still alive and well out there. "Please be safe," she said out loud, "I don't know what I'd do without you…" She stared up into the night sky, her paws on the windowsill holding her up. The sky was illuminated by a seemingly infinite amount of stars along with the Celestial Moons. A cool breeze graced her body as she sighed heavily.

"You really miss him, don't you?" asked a voice from behind her. Shelly turned around and saw Brizzette standing at the door. Her broken wing and injured leg were bandaged up nicely. The older dragoness slowly made her way towards Shelly. Even from a distance, she could tell that the young yellow dragoness had tears in her glossy eyes. As soon as she reached her, Brizzette used her good wing to bring Shelly into a comforting embrace. "I miss him too, mamita."

Shelly sniffed and sobbed softly. "I just wish I knew how he was doing at least. Then I could rest peacefully at night."

"I know, I know. But you know what you should do?" Brizzette asked. Shelly look up into her eyes and slowly shook her head. The sky-blue dragoness smiled and said, "Debes poner tu fe en mi hijo."

Shelly tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Huh?"

Brizzette chuckled softly, "I said, you should put your faith in my son. He's a strong dragon, I know he'll come home soon." She stroked the young dragoness's back tenderly and caringly, like a mother would do to her daughter. "Will you do that for me? Have faith in him?"

Shelly smiled and nodded, "I will. Thank you Lady Brizzette."

"Oh don't be so formal. Just call me Brizzette."

"Alright. Thanks Brizzette." The wind dragoness kissed her gently on the head and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Shelly sighed once again, getting down from the window. She purposely left it open to allow the cool air to flow into her room. She walked to her bed and propped her front paws onto it, ready to hop into bed. Right before she did however, there was a knock on her door. "Come in," she said loudly so the one on the other side may hear.

The door gently swung open to reveal the familiar grey dragon on the other side. "Good evening Shelly."

"Hey Ash, good evening," she replied, jumping on her bed and laying down on her belly.

"I'm glad I caught you before you went to bed. I have to change those bandages on your paw." Shelly simply nodded, allowing Ash to come up to her and get to work.

As he undid her old bandages, he noticed that her eyes seemed very distant, as if this world did not exist to her. "Shelly? Are you alright?" he asked. His only answer was silence however as the dragoness continued to stare off into space. "Shelly?" he called again, a little louder.

This snapped her out of her trance as she shook her head and responded with a "huh?"

"You okay? You were staring into space. Is something troubling you?"

"I'm fine. I'm just worried about Relisan… and I'm tired. I'll feel better tomorrow."

The grey dragon wasn't convinced that that was all. "There's more to it than that, isn't there?" He asked. Shelly remained silent though, not wanting to answer him. "You feel alone without him, don't you?" Shelly looked up at him surprised. Although she remained silent still, her expression asked the question that ran through her head, 'how did you know?' " I know because," Ash continued, "I had those same eyes when I was younger. Eyes that pleaded for the loneliness to end, eyes with the desire to see someone standing next to them." Shelly continued to stare at him, amazed that he had hit the nail on the head. Ash finished up with her paw, tightening the fresh bandages so they wouldn't fall off, yet not so tightly that it would make her uncomfortable. He released her paw and smiled. "Just remember Shelly, if you ever want to ease that loneliness a little, or talk about something, you can come to me okay? I know I could never replace the one you love, but hey, what are friends for?" The grey dragon jumped off of the bed and headed for the door.

"Thanks Ash," Shelly spoke at last, smiling at him. Ask looked back and returned the smile before walking out the door and closing it with a gentle _click_. Shelly made herself comfy on the bed; not feeling as lonely anymore, she quickly fell asleep.

Relisan shifted in his half-asleep state as he felt something brush gently against his side. He looked up and, to his surprise, he saw his sister Glaisha and his best friend Zakroz huddled close to him, both fast asleep. Apparently, the two of them had sensed his lonely state and, feeling the same, decided to sleep close together to give each other their warmth and company. Relisan couldn't help but smile. "Thanks you two," he whispered so softly that he could barely hear himself.

He rested his head on his paws once again, happy to be reminded that he still had friends here. And together, they would all get through this.

**Sorry this took longer than expected to come out! My comp had a busted fan so I had to take it in for repairs. And sorry for the shortness of this chapter, it was more of a filler I felt like putting in, hehe.**

**And Spanish word of the day: Mamita – this word is basically the same as calling a female loved one 'honey' or 'sweetie' and so on. It's mostly used by guys to their girlfriend or mothers/fathers to their daughters.**

**Anyways thanks for reading! Please review! ^_^**

**Till next time!**


	14. Puzzle One

**First of all I wanted to give a big thanks to The Chaotic Queen of Madness for helping me on this chapter and the following two! You're a great friend Queen =)**

**Second, I have finally taken my other story, TLoS: Soul Savior, out of hiatus! So please check it out if you want ^_^**

**And third, please enjoy this chapter! I don't own any Spyro characters!**

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 13: Puzzle One

_Another day is here…_ thought Cynder, _which means yet another 'game' to play… how many of these is this psycho going to put us through?_ She sat in silence along with the others, mentally preparing themselves for whatever Ripto had in store for them. They expected to be teleported outside at anytime, just like the previous days. However, Ripto had other things in mind today.

The small riptoc walked casually down the musky hallway, humming a tune to himself. As he passed by the dragons' cell, he stopped and looked at them with a smirk on his face. "Well good morning my soon-to-be-slaves. How are you?" he greeted them. All five dragons snapped their necks to notice him standing there, surprised looks on their faces.

"What are you doing down here?" asked Relisan, getting up on his paws.

"I just came to tell you about the next little game I have planned for you. Tell me, do any of you enjoy solving puzzles?" Before any of them could respond, Ripto waved his scepter as it released a thick cloud of smoke into the cell. The dragons chocked and coughed as the smoke began to fill their lungs, suffocating them. Their eyes burned as they tried desperately to gasp for air. One by one though, they each fell into unconsciousness.

Once they were all down, Ripto cleared the smoke and smiled wickedly. "Have fun."

Relisan groaned as he slept, a smile on his face, enjoying the dream he was having. "Shelly…" he mumbled, "I love it… when you do that…" A giggle from a dragoness caught his ears, but it wasn't the one he had fallen in love with. It was an unfamiliar little laugh and, being a light sleeper, it awoke him from his dreams. He groaned again as he opened his eyes, blinking them until they got used to the light of his surroundings. Once they did, he saw Spyro, Cynder, and Zakroz all looking at him with grins on their faces, as if they were trying to suppress some laughter. "What's going on?" Relisan said, followed by a big yawn. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure," Spyro replied, "but are you okay?"

"Umm… yeah?" Relisan said with a quizzical look.

"You sure?" asked Zakroz. "Cause to us it looks like you've got some… morning wood there." The brown dragon couldn't help but chuckle.

"What do you mean mor-" The red dragon's eyes widened and he looked down himself. Sure enough, he was exposed. It seems that the dream he had was rather… arousing. With a yelp of embarrassment, he quickly rolled onto his stomach, effectively hiding his dragonhood. "You guys are perverts!" he said angrily as his face became even redder. The other three only laughed a little.

"Aw come on Relisan!" Cynder said as she calmed down. "We were just poking some fun at you! I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've caught Spyro like that."

Now it was the purple dragon's turn to blush. "Cynder…" he said with a sheepish smile. After another short moment of laughter, the four dragons got serious. "Okay, so where exactly are we?" he asked.

They all looked around. Wherever they were, it was nothing impressive. They were in a small room that was completely empty save for a wooden table and a door on the other side. Zakroz went up to the door to test it but it was locked. "Looks like we're stuck in here… but what are we supposed to do?"

"Didn't that little freak say something about puzzles before we were knocked out?" asked the black dragoness. "Maybe there's a puzzle we gotta solve in order to move on."

"I think you're right Cynder," said Spyro, "come here and look at this table." Everyone gathered around the table and saw three coins on top and five holes about the same size as the coins. One coin had the picture of an old dragon engraved into it and was labeled 'Elder'. The second had a picture of a snake and was labeled 'Snake'. The last one had a dragoness on it. It was labeled as 'Prisoner'.

"Seems obvious to me that we have to find the right order to put these coins in the holes… question is… how?" stated Relisan.

"There's gotta be a clue somewhere," said the brown dragon, "let's look around." The other three dragons nodded and began their search. After a few minutes of nothing, Cynder found something interesting.

"Hey guys! Look here at the side of the table! Something's written on it!"

Once again everyone gathered around and looked at the inscription. It read:

"Like coins in the hazy

aether tossed

Our souls must by

their sinful weight

Descend to earth

with lightness lost

To right the sins

that they hath laid

When thrice in falling they intone

The Happiness shall be thy own

The first note be not by

the Horned One rung

Though it be there that

all sins be sprung

The Bringer of Life and

the Bringer of Shame

The sins of the latter be

even more tame

Though coming

in the Aged One's wake

The Formless One's soul

in fear doth quake

The Needless One, silent,

with hungers all sated

Is least then in sin

with his lusts all abated

For the gravest of sinners

His place be appointed

And if he be lucky

May his soul be anointed"

"What in the realms is that supposed to mean?" asked Zakroz.

"I don't know," Cynder spoke up, "but it's the only clue we've got… lets try to decipher it… it may be the only way outta here."

All four dragons began to work together in order to figure out the poem's hidden message. As time passed by, they unconsciously split themselves into two groups, Spyro with Relisan and Cynder with Zakroz. While the black and brown dragons were working diligently on the task at hand, Spyro and Relisan became distracted and began to talk about other things.

"Hey Relisan I've been meaning to ask you," began the purple dragon, "Why do you have that cloak on?"

The red dragon looked behind himself, "Well, the village where I lived was close to Dante's Freezer, so this helps keep me warm."

"Oh okay. But why don't you get a new one? That one seems really old and tattered."

"Yeah it is. I've had it since I was born. My dad made it for me back then and every time I would outgrow it, he would add a little more at the end. You see, he was the master tailor at the village and this was the first cloak he made successfully. And he gave it to me… it's my most treasured possession."

"I see," Spyro sighed, "I wish I knew who my father was… my actual father I mean because Ignitus-"

"Hey guys!" Cynder called out excitedly, "I think we've got it!" The two males quickly got up and moved closer to Cynder to listen. "It was pretty complicated but we both think that we got it."

"Well, let's hear it," said Relisan eagerly.

"Well," Zakroz began, "the sentence 'Our souls must by their sinful weight; to 'right' the sins that they hath laid' means that the more sinful the dragon or thing is, the further to the right it belongs. 'The first note be not by the Horned One rung; though it be there that all sins be sprung' determines that the Snake is not the biggest sinner, but is the cause of the sins, as it's represented as a devil. 'The Bringer of Life and the Bringer of Shame; the sins of the latter be even more tame' says that the dragoness, which is the bringer of life, is more sinful than the snake, which is the bringer of shame. The word 'latter' means the second of two things mentioned, and the word 'tame' determines that the 'latter', in this case the snake, is less afraid, therefore less sinful. 'Though coming in the Aged One's wake; the Formless One's soul in fear doth quake' mentions that the snake is afraid of the elder dragon, thus they cannot be together. 'The Needless One, silent, with hungers all sated; Is least then in sin with his lusts all abated' states that the elder dragon has put an end to his eagerness, or if you will, craving for qualities such as power, life, and so on. Thus, making him the least to sin."

"Whoa, there's no way I would have been able to figure all that out…" admitted the red dragon. "Well now that we know this, lets see if we can get the coins in order. Relisan went to the table, everyone following him, and moved the coins so they were in front of the holes. "So according to what you said, the elder dragon is the least sinful, therefore, belongs furthest to the left." He moved the 'Elder' coin and positioned it in front of the left-most hole. "Then the snake is supposed to be the next one in line, but it's scared of the elder, so they can't be together. Which means the snake must go in the center." He moved the mentioned coin in front of the center hole. "And finally, the dragoness goes to the right of the snake because she's the most sinful and nothing mentions that the snake is afraid of her so…" He moved the 'Prisoner' coin and placed it right next to the 'Snake' coin. "You think this is correct?" The coins were set up as: 'Elder', then an empty slot, 'Snake', 'Prisoner', and another empty slot.

"I guess that's right…" said Cynder, still rather unsure.

"Only one way to find out," said Spyro, "go for it Relisan."

The red dragon nodded and picked up each coin. He dropped them one at a time into their respective holes, hearing a small click with each drop. After a moment of silence, a louder click was heard and the drawer in front of the table opened. Inside were two items. One was a key, which they figured would unlock the door that blocked them. The other however was a very odd thing. It was a music box with a dragon on the top.

"A music box?" questioned Zakroz. "Why is there a music box in here?"

"I'm not sure but I think it's best we take it with us," said the black dragoness as she picked it up with one paw. She took a closer look at the dragon on the music box and gasped slightly. "Spyro! Look! This dragon it looks like Volteer!"

Spyro took a closer look at it and was just as surprised as his mate. "Wow! You're right! But why would there be a music box with the lightning guardian on it?"

"I have no idea, but I have a feeling we'll find out soon," said Relisan. He picked up the key and went to unlock the door. "Come on, let's keep moving."

With a turn of the key and a shove of his shoulder, the door swung open, granting the four dragons access to the next room… and the next puzzle.

**Hope you liked it! Again big thanks to The Chaotic Queen of Madness for helping me!**

**And a shout out in the next chapter to the first person who can guess what this is a reference to!**

**Till next time!**


	15. Puzzle Two

**Finally! After a VERY extended hiatus, I'm back! And we're starting things off by remaking this chapter of my story. After I read what I wrote back then, I was not pleased with the way it ended. So I changed a few things, mostly at the end. Anyways, enough blabbering, let's get things started again!**

**I don't own any Spyro characters! Enjoy!**

The Ripto Chronicles: Ripto's Games

Chapter 14: Puzzle Two

The four dragons entered the room. It looked just like the previous room except there was no table, no coins. In fact, the whole room was relatively empty, except for…

"Six dragons? What are six dragons doing here?" Relisan said.

"And… why are they about to be hung?" Spyro added.

In front of them, there were indeed six dragons, one had black scales, followed by ones with red, blue, a lighter blue, green, and silver scales from left to right. Each one had a noose around their necks, a bag covering their faces to prevent them from speaking, and a sign on their heads.

The black dragon's sign read "One who steals a hatchling."

The red dragon's sign said "One who causes physical harm/hurts another."

For the blue dragon it read "One who illegally sets fire to property"

"One who steals, especially by stealth" is what the light blue dragon's sign said.

The green dragon was labeled "One who cheats or defrauds money or property."

And finally, the silver dragon's read "One who kills another brutally."

"So… apparently all of these dragons committed some sort of crime, but how are we gonna get to the next room?" Cynder pondered. She looked at the door that would lead them out and saw yet another sign attached to it. "What's this?"

This sign said:

"Only the sinless one

can help you here.

Mistakenly pull on

a criminal's rope and

your reward will be returned

to you in a shape most

wondrously strange."

"Okay, so one of these dragons is actually innocent. But… how the hell are we supposed to figure out which?" asked Zakroz. "According to this, if we pull on the wrong rope, we kill the only chance of solving this puzzle… and we'll die too…"

Spyro thought for a moment. "Search the room guys, there may a clue somewhere like-" The purple dragon cut himself short as he felt something crunch under the padding of his paw. He looked down and saw a piece of parchment with writing on it. He picked it up as everyone gathered close to listen as Spyro read its message out loud.

"We may visit death upon the head

of the sinner but to what avail?

In the name of retribution,

we took part in a bitter

comedy this day.

You, hanging as you do,

by your neck,

Unforgiven and cursed by all.

Five of them committed crimes,

six went out for a drink and

were captured there.

Only one of them was innocent,

but they knew not that.

The bloodstains remaining

are proof of their guilt.

Trodden upon and thus created,

they are paths to

Hell or the Void.

The white bandages stained

with crimson,

The remains upon the scorched

black earth,

The whispered cries of

the maiden.

They are but meaningless contract.

They are also signs of guilt.

But one of them was

done without reason.

It was done out of fear

and a ripe imagination.

Sinning alone at the

end of a rope,

it is nothing less than

a disgrace to us all."

"Another riddle to solve… great… like the last one didn't give us enough trouble?" Cynder exclaimed.

"Actually, I don't think that this one is as difficult as the last," said Relisan. "In fact, I think I've already solved it. Lemme see that parchment." Spyro passed it on to Relisan who began to read it to himself. After a few moments of silence, save for a few inaudible mumbles from the red dragon, he smiled and nodded. "I'm sure this is the right answer."

"Well, don't leave us here guessing," Zakroz spoke up, "tell us."

"Alright. First of all, we need to know what type of crime each dragon has committed. By looking at their signs, we can say that the black dragon is a kidnapper, the red one's a bodily injurer, the blue one an arsonist, the lighter blue one a thief, the green one a swindler, and the silver one a murderer. This note describes each of them except for one.

"The line 'The bloodstains remaining are proof of their guilt' gives the image that someone has another's blood on them. This points to the murderer since he killed another brutally, causing blood to spill onto him.

"Next, 'The white bandages stained with crimson,' is the bodily injurer for many of them wrap bandages around their paws and legs to protect them before they beat the crap out of someone.

"'The remains upon the scorched black earth' is obviously the arsonist, no need to go further into that.

"'The whispered cries of the maiden' gives the image of a poor mother who has lost her child, thus leading us to believe that the hatchling was kidnapped.

"And last but not least, the last line, 'They are but meaningless contract' tells us that this supposed 'contract' is worthless, pointing all claws to the swindler.

"The only one who is not mentioned throughout the entire thing is the thief. There was no mentioning of property being stolen, nor of any dragon using stealth to their advantage." Relisan paused after his lengthy explanation, letting it all sink in. "Does that make sense to you guys?"

"Yeah," Cynder said, "it makes a lot of sense. And I don't think that there could possibly be another explanation."

"So that means that the one who's falsely accused is the thief? The blue dragon right? The lighter one I mean," asked Zakroz. Relisan nodded 'yes' in reply. "So then that means we have to pull on his rope to set him free and we can move on." He walked up to the six bounded dragons and stood behind them. He spotted a knot of rope behind each of their necks that would release them when pulled loose. He reached up for the one behind the white dragon and pulled it loose.

The light blue dragon quickly fell to the floor with a loud thud while at the same time, the sound of tightening ropes and a few gags from the remaining dragons filled the room, sending a shiver up the group's spines.

Zakroz helped the white dragon up onto his paws and removed the bag covering his face… or her face. "Glaisha?" the group exclaimed out of pure shock.

The frightened dragoness looked around at everyone's faces and leaped up to Relisan. She started crying and pressed her head against her brother's shoulder. "R-Relisan!" she sobbed.

The red and black dragon couldn't help but wrap his wings around her to comfort and calm her. "It's okay Glaisha, you're safe now," he said. "But… how did you get here?"

"It was th-that Ripto freak! He knocked me out and when I woke up I had that bag over my face! I couldn't see anything! All I heard was his creepy voice saying 'Your friends won't save you! They're going to fail and you're going to die! Just give up all hope!' I was so scared!"

Relisan took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He wanted to get his paws around Ripto's throat and choke the life out of him for torturing his sister like that. He wanted to tear him to shreds. Right now though, what was more important was comforting his sister and finding a way out of the strange room. "It's alright sis, we're here now. We didn't fail and you're safe. Come on, let's find a way out of here okay?"

"Alright…" said the dragoness.

"Hmm…" Zakroz thought out loud. He went up to the door to see if it was opened. "Damn it… still locked. Now what?"

"If you can be patient for a moment I'll tell you!" Ripto's voice suddenly rang out. "I must say, for a group of low-life dragons, you sure are a clever bunch. My congratulations to you all. However, you still have another task ahead of you. Tell me, how well are you five at mixing potions?" After that, his voice faded and the door vanished, allowing the group to move on to the next and hopefully last challenge.

"Come on guys, let's go," said Spyro as hed went into the room first.

Cynder sighed and followed. "This is getting on my nerves… that little creep better be ready for the ass kicking I have in store for him!"

**A much better ending if you ask me. Now then a quick announcement: the updates of this story as well as any new ideas I may come up with will be random, given my crazy schedule now. I can't guarantee anything but I'm going to try my best to come out with at least one new chapter every two weeks.**

**Thanks to everyone who has been with me even after my very long break. And thanks to all the readers out there who found my stories and continued to add me to their favorites/alerts. You all really helped re-inspire me!**

**Till next time! **


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